JAMESTOWN, NY – The comments of a Jamestown councilman suggesting that the community consider marketing itself as a Mecca for gay marriage has sparked a firestorm, with the official receiving calls for his resignation and even threats against his life.

Councilman Greg Rabb, who also serves as the municipal body’s president, proposed during a recent meeting that the state’s marriage equality law could benefit the community by putting out the call for gay tourists and those looking to tie the knot.

When council members reviewed ideas for building tourism dollars within the community of 31,000 (Source: 2010 Census data), Rabb floated the suggestion that Jamestown “market itself as a same sex destination.”

Following the remarks, a flood of emails and comments hit the Web site of the Post Journal, the local newspaper. “I was appalled when I read Greg Rabb’s idea to make Chautauqua County a destination for ‘same sex marriages,’” wrote one reader. “What a despicable thing to say!

This is an abomination and is against all natural law. The morals of our country are at an all time low and it is time we turn ourselves around.”

Another reader, Pastor Donald V. Erickson, wrote with outrage “What! Is this how we are going to put Jamestown on the map? A baby San Francisco? We’ve already been in the national limelight (recall one who went about Jamestown knowingly infecting girls with the HIV virus),” adding “News flash, fellas: The second half of Romans, chapter one, is just as true as every other page in God’s Holy Word (The Bible).” Another criticized Rabb for pushing a “personal agenda.”

Supporters of Rabb organized a demonstration on front of the Post Journal editorial offices this week, to show their solidarity with the embattled councilman.

They said that the councilman had received threats since his suggestion, and note that town officials have seen an increase in tourism since the passage of marriage equality in New York, since Jamestown is near the border with Pennsylvania, a state where gay marriage is still not legal.

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