Anti-LGBT sentiments circulate at the Clark County Chamber of Commerce?

Update: The CC Chamber of Commerce has officially stated that this was spam email. There have been discussions about this statement (make of that what you will) and you can read the entire announcement at the bottom of this post.

For all the ups and downs of my hometown Vancouver, Washington and its Clark County, from being named one of the most gayest cities to being made fun of in a Portlandia spoof called Vancouvria, I never would have expected emails as homophobic as these that circulated last night at the Clark County Chamber of Commerce. (Guess they won’t be promoting our Holiday Gift Guide, local as it may be).

Apparently, they were not meant for the general public, but that doesn’t negate their inherent discrimination. Change.org has additional information and a petition you can sign demanding an apology.

From: Clark County Chamber of Commerce
Date: Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 7:25 PM
Subject: Member Update
To: (Name removed at recipients request)

Dear (Name removed at recipients request)

In order to help maintain the integrity of our website, we ask that all members refrain from posting any listings that reference or involve the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. We feel that that these businesses and listings have no place in Clark County.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Clark County Chamber of Commerce
Date: Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Subject: Member Update
To: (Name removed at recipients request)

Dear (Name removed at recipients request)
In order to ensure the integrity of our website, we ask that all members refrain from listing any businesses that reference or involve the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. We feel the website would be better if such immoral businesses stayed out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They then sent the following email:

From: Clark County Chamber of Commerce
Date: Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:21 PM
Subject: Member Update – correction
To: (Name removed at recipients request)
Dear (Name removed at recipients request)

Our apologies, please disregard the earlier email and it was send to general membership in error.

Happy holidays,

Clark County Chamber of Commerce

When asked directly the Chamber of Commerce responded to qPDX with this email from Izad (no surname given).

The offensive emails were SPAM and were NOT from Clark County Chamber of Commerce.  Attacker’s server is located  in the Netherlands based on their IP Address.  We have  done all we can to prevent similar incident from occurring in the future.  The offensive emails in NO way represent the position or policies of the Clark County County Chamber of Commerce.

Regards,
Izad on behalf of Clark County Chamber of Commerce.