Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s appointee for an advisory body on women’s issues resigned amid an outcry over her anti-Catholic tweets.
Gail Gordon Donegan, a Democratic activist appointed to the Virginia Council on Women, had directed vulgar tweets against Catholics for years on her Twitter account, often tying her comments to the church’s struggle with sexual abuse among its clergy.
In 2010, Donegan tweeted, “Abortion is morally indefensible to Catholic priests bcuz it results in fewer children to rape.”
“Dr, lawyer & priest on Titantic [sic]. Doc: save the children! lawyer: f— the children! Priest: Is there time?” she tweeted in 2013, later calling it “my fave joke.”
Donegan defended her tweets, saying that her father “was severely beaten in Catholic foster homes and I am an atheist.”
Donegan stepped aside Wednesday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, a day after Virginia’s Catholic bishops called on Catholics to pressure the governor’s office.
Virginia’s Catholic bishops asked Northam to rescind her appointment.
“We expect anyone appointed to a council, board or commission for the Commonwealth to be respectful of all faith groups and civil in his or her public comments,” said Bishop Michael Burbridge of the Arlington Diocese on Tuesday. “Her statements are offensive to Catholics and our faith.”
Others supported Donegan, including Democratic state senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw.
“It is unfortunate that the Commonwealth will not benefit from the commitment and advocacy of Gail Donegan,” Saslaw tweeted after her resignation. “Her dedication to important issues would have made a great addition to the Virginia Council on Women.”
American Atheists, a nonprofit atheist advocacy group, said Northam should “not let the scandal-rocked, morally bankrupt Catholic Church force out an atheist appointee for telling the truth.”
Donegan’s resignation is the latest scandal for Northam’s administration, coming just months after he faced calls to leave office after the publication of a racist photo from his medical school yearbook.
[Opinion: How does Ralph Northam still have a job?]
