Latvian Lawmaker: 'Thank God' Nazis Shot Gays

The political career of a Latvian Parliament member may be coming to an unplanned end after she tweeted a homophobic rant praising Nazi extermination of LGBT people during World War II, Kremlin-backed news agency Russia Today is reporting.

Inga Priede was debating a fellow Unity Party member on Twitter Monday night about the possibility of marriage equality and gay pride in Latvia when she made the controversial remarks.

"Thank God! The Germans shot [homosexuals] in their time. Was good for demographics," Priede posted on Twitter. The tweet was removed shortly after it was posted, but not before others had captured it.

Priede later tweeted an apology and urged Latvians to adhere to "Christian values."

Nevertheless, Priede resigned her leadership position with the Unity Party as a result of her tweets, reports RT. It was not immediately known if she would also resign her seat in Parliament. An emergency party meeting was called to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, according to RT, critics are calling for criminal prosecution of Priede.

"Such statements are absolutely unacceptable. And her later attempts to say she didn't write these criminal things or that she had been misunderstood prove that Ms. Priede is not a brave person and does not take responsibility for her words," said fellow member of Parliament Ilze Vinkele, a former Latvian social minister.

Two weeks ago, Latvia's top diplomat came out on Twitter as a gay man. Priede's comments appear to be part of a right-wing response to Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics's "#ProudToBeGay" tweet. Rinkevics said he was inspired by Apple CEO Tim Cook's decision to tell the world that he is gay in October.

Surprisingly Candid Reporting by RT
Russia Today, which is part of the mult-network media monolith controlled by the Russian government, was surprisingly candid in its reporting of the incident. That candor is surprising for several reasons, not least because the news organization has experienced several public resignations by its journalists, who were protesting government pressure to support President Vladimir Putin's positions in their reporting.

The fact that Putin's regime is no friend to Western-leaning former Soviet republics like Latvia -- as Ukrainians know all too well -- makes the seemingly objective reporting of Putin-controlled RT about Priede's homophobic Twitter rant all the more surprising.

That objectivity is equally striking because Russian media falls under the nationwide ban on so-called gay propaganda, signed into law by Putin last year. The legislation, which bans any discussion of or statements in support of LGBT identities in arenas visible to minors, has led to an increasingly violent, oppressive environment for LGBT people in Russia, and has seen newspapers and even toy stores fined and censured for LGBT-inclusive actions.

Just last month, government officials in St. Petersburg charged an online social network where LGBT teens connected with violating the ban -- even after similar charges had been dismissed by a state judge earlier this year.