New York Young Republican Resigns After Worrying About The 'United States Of Gaymeria'
In a statement to Business Insider on Monday, club president Brian Morgenstern disowned the post, which has since been deleted.
"William Palumbo resigned from his position with our volunteer organization on July 1st. The contents of his blog post do not reflect the views of the club," Morgenstern said.
The cited resignation date - July 1 - is a week and a half before the controversy first emerged last Friday, when Palumbo, the former head of "Blog" at the club used the NYYRC website to declare his dismay after a friend sent him a photo of rainbow gay pride flags being displayed at the U.S. Embassy in London last month.
"Can I pose a serious question? At what point does replacing the American flag with the rainbow flag, a symbol of gay/LGBTQ(RSTUVWXYZ) pride from embassies abroad become an impeachable offense in itself?" Palumbo wrote. "Last time I checked, the official flag of the country was the Stars and Stripes, not the same rainbow that is found on the doors of gay bars downtown."
Palumbo declined to comment to Business Insider specifically, but issued a general response alleging his foreign policy research had been stifled.
"The real story here [is] ... that the Republican Party has essentially kicked me out the door and pulled 18 months of research into the American relationship with Qatar (i.e., state sponsored terrorism and funding of ISIS), which was on their blog, because I posted a picture of an American embassy. That's a massive coverup," he said in an email.
Update (5:22 p.m.): Morgenstern also commented about the timing of Palumbo's resignation. "Regarding Mr. Palumbo's resignation, he submitted it on July 1, long before he posted this content on July 11. We were confirming his replacement and had not yet updated the website when he posted the content," he said.
Additional reporting by Hunter Walker.