Councilwoman Elisa Chan defended anti-gay remarks made during a secretly recorded staff meeting, saying at a news conference Tuesday that she won't change her “values or beliefs for political gain or survival.”
The statements mark Chan's first public appearance since San Antonio Express-News Columnist Brian Chasnoff reported last week that a former aide recorded the May 21 meeting, in which Chan expressed her unvarnished views on sexuality, from calling it “disgusting” to saying that gays shouldn't be allowed to adopt because it could confuse children and lead to them being “corrupt.”
Cloaked in an argument about the cons utionality of her statements, Chan said she had an expectation she and her staff would be free to express their personal opinions and thoughts during staff meetings.
“Political correctness will not win this day; standing firm as an individual in service to the whole community does,” she said. “I stand strong in my First Amendment right to freedom of speech and our right to privacy.”
She said her confidentiality was violated when then-staffer James Stevens, 28, surrep iously recorded the staff meeting, where the District 9 councilwoman and her staff strategized on ways to oppose updating the city's nondiscrimination ordinance.
“I know that many people find the comments made in the meeting offensive, but again, it was a confidential meeting set in the privacy of my office where none of us are supposed to worry about what we say,” she said. “These meetings have been and always will be a free-speech zone.”
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