GOP Committee Member Pressured To Resign Over Anti-Gay Email

Gov. Charlie Baker is among prominent Massachusetts Republicans calling on an elected member of the Republican State Committee to resign for making homophobic remarks about a gay GOP congressional candidate.

Deborah Martell, a member of the 80-member state committee, wrote in an email to fellow Republicans last month that was shared with The Boston Globe that she was “sickened” that Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette and his husband had adopted two children.

Sossa-Paquette is challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern.

“Deborah Martell’s comments about Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette and his family are abhorrent and have no place in public discourse and of course have no place in the leadership of a political party founded on protecting individual freedom,” Baker said in a statement to the Globe.

Martell has not responded to email and voicemail requests for comment from the Globe.

Sossa-Paquette said he confronted Martell about the email.

“This does not represent the Republican Party that I’ve defended for the last 20 years of my life,” Sossa-Paquette said. “I’m not going to tolerate any bigotry coming out of my own party or the Democratic Party."

Sossa-Paquette said he reached out to state GOP Chairman Jim Lyons, who “basically just told me he’s not going to get involved.”