Tory councillor suspended for describing gays as "sexual deviants"

Pink News reports that Cllr Patrick Clark, a Conservative councillor on Derbyshire County Council, has been suspended from the Conservative Group after describing gays as "sexually deviant."

In a piece for the Duffield Scene newsletter, Cllr Clark wrote:

"I object to being required to embrace an agenda that actively supports and positively discriminates in favour of people who I consider to be sexual deviants and who engage in practices contrary to my religious beliefs."

Cllr Clark is entitled to his religous beliefs and certainly entitled to resist positive discrimination. But the "sexual deviants" reference was pretty unfortunate. Any homosexual voters in Cllr Clark's Duffield and Belper South Ward would have been entitled to have taken offence at the comments from their electoral representative. Cllr Clark told the Derby Telegraph that: "The term deviant just means different, it was not derogatory."

I think the term "deviant" is derogatory and can see that Cllr Clark's unwillingness to see any reason to apologise left his colleagues with a difficulty. But suspending him seems severe. Could they not have simply disowned his remark?