Craig Northcott is the district attorney for Coffee County, Tennessee. He is also a rampaging homophobe who has just been cleared by the Board of Professional Responsibility after a two-year ethical investigation into some truly despicable remarks he made about homosexuals.
The self-proclaimed “good Christian” grabbed the headlines a few years ago when he said he didn’t believe domestic violence laws should apply to LGBTQ people.
Specifically, he said domestic violence laws exist “to recognize and protect the sanctity of marriage,” but with same-sex couples “there is no marriage to protect, so I don’t do not pursue them as servants ”.
The remarks sparked a huge backlash, prompting 330 attorneys to send a letter to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility calling for the suspension of Northcott’s attorney license.
But after a two-year investigation, the disciplinary lawyer for the Board of Professional Responsibility determined that his comments about LGBTQ people were absolutely correct and that they would do nothing about it.
In a statement released Friday, Northcott gleefully said “there is no legal and / or factual basis for concluding that I have violated a single rule of professional conduct” and called the entire investigation a ‘attack’ against his Christian beliefs.
“It has been alleged that I am unfit to serve as a district attorney and remain a lawyer in Tennessee because I have taught the Word of God regarding homosexuality,” Northcott wrote.
“Surprisingly, this simple exercise of my God-given and constitutionally protected rights so upset certain groups of people that I made local, national and international news and had to fight against their efforts to get deregistered. of the bar for the past two years. “
Northcott then urged his “Christian brethren” to “stand firm” against “the growing assault on us in this country.”
UPDATE: DA Craig Northcott, who refuses to recognize marriage equality despite the SCOTUS ruling and called Muslims “bad,” had the Council’s professional liability complaint against him dismissed, gives credit to God .
Why did it take so long? And not even censorship? ? pic.twitter.com/wW6VXLcfoz
– Coffee Holler (@CoffeeHoller) July 10, 2021
Graham Gremore is editor and editor at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
