Activists petition newspaper owner over offensive comments

Ga. newspaper calls gays who want to marry ‘perverts’

Georgia Equality issued an action alert this afternoon over a column in the Sandersville Progress and other Georgia newspapers written by Robert Tribble called “You Might Be A Liberal If…” The column takes several pot-shots at left-wingers and goes as far as to call gays and lesbians wishing to marry “perverts.”

Tribble is the owner of several Georgia newspapers including the Sandersville Progress and the Fayette County News.

There are eight “you might be a liberal ifs” but below is certainly the most offensive to LGBT persons.

“If you think that you know more than God and find it perfectly acceptable for two perverts to marry each other you’re a liberal,” one of the bullet points in the letter read.

The column is basically a reprint of an open letter written to the Columbus Enquirer by Richard Cawthorne of Ellerlie, Ga. Tribble slapped a sentence at the top of the letter that he was passing along Cawthorne’s thoughts, and a sentence at the bottom noting that “most … is very true in my opinion and worth repeating.”

The column ran in the July 19 issue of the small-town paper and was also posted on the website of the Fayette County News on July 23.

Katherine Helms Cummings, from Sandersville, reached out to Georgia Equality and has created a petition on Change.org calling for an apology from Tribble over his remarks in the editorial.

“Tell this media owner that this kind of broad-based intolerance and name calling has no place in democratic debate and join us in asking him to issue an apology,” the petition reads.

As of this post, the petition had some 52 signatures.

We attempted to reach Tribble via telephone but were unable.