Troy Mayor Recording: Daniels Calls 'Queer' Comment on Facebook 'Inconsequential'

At a meeting with members of 's Gay-Straight Alliance and other community activists this month to plan an anti-bullying program, Troy Mayor Janice Daniels offered to "bring in psychiatrists, who will tell you that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous."

The mayor's statement was part of an audio recording she made of the Jan. 9 meeting; it was released this week by the city to Troy Patch on a Freedom of Information Act request.

Daniels has been under fire since early December on her Facebook page prior to taking office. Daniels defended her comment during the January meeting, saying there were far worse statements posted on Facebook by other people. 

"I thought my sentence was basically inconsequential," Daniels said at the meeting, a comment heard on the recording, referring to a June 25 Facebook comment that read: "I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there." 

In the recording, Daniels said the Facebook comment demonstrates her belief that marriage should be a sacred union between one man and one woman. 

The Jan. 9 meeting was meant to help Daniels and GSA members reach an understanding while planning an event focused on issues including suicide prevention.

GSA member Skye Curtis attended the meeting and afterward said Daniels stated she would organize a panel of psychologists to show that . “There were a lot of disturbing things that were said in that meeting," Curtis said then. 

Curtis, a senior at Troy High School, later admitted to mistakenly accusing the mayor of making the connection between mental illness and homosexuality in a . "I didn't ask for clarification about the statement's actual wording, and posted a Facebook status when I got home reflecting what I'd misunderstood," Curtis wrote in the blog. "I'm very sorry that this instantly went viral before I checked the actual wording of the Mayor's statement."

At the Jan. 9 meeting, there was discussion about requesting the mayor to speak at the anti-bullying event.

In the recording, someone is heard saying Daniels would be asked to "discuss the issue at hand that got us here in the first place," referring to her .

"If I do, I'm not sure that any of you will be satisfied," Daniels is heard saying on the recording. "I will bring in psychiatrists, who will tell you that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous."

"It is not your place to do that as a city leader," someone else at the meeting said in response. "I just don’t think you should be a part of (the event) at all."

Neither Curtis nor Daniels responded to requests for comment Monday.

GSA member Zach Kilgore, who also attended the Jan. 9 meeting, said Monday that he understands how someone could have perceived the mayor as linking homosexuality to mental illness by using the term "psychiatrists."

“The (dangerous lifestyle) comment is a generalization that a lot of people make," Kilgore said. "I think what she was trying to say is that homosexuals are more likely to have unsafe sex. But just because you’re a homosexual doesn’t mean you're going to have unsafe sex."

Kilgore said Monday that the Gay-Straight Alliance will move forward with planning the anti-bullying event, the goal of which is to promote diversity and acceptance in the community.

It's been a volatile first couple of months for the new mayor, who has also been under attack for her and public reading of a . Some residents have called for Daniels to step down, and others have vowed to mount a recall effort.

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nearly three-quarters of Troy voters surveyed said they would support recalling Daniels from office.