SAMMAMISH — A member of the Sammamish Planning Commission resigned Monday after homophobic comments he made during a public meeting came to light.
During a public meeting on June 1, Planning Commission member Wassim Fayed asserted that members of the LGBTQ+ community are “promoting diseases and infestation into the minds of our kids in schools.”
He went on to state his belief that “God created us as a male and a female and to go against the creation of God and to spread diseases in the community is something that we should speak up against.”
As people learned of the comments, some people began posting negative reviews for the restaurant on Yelp. When the increase in negative attention grew, Yelp locked the account and prevented others from posting comments.
On Monday, the comments and video were posted to Reddit, pointing out that Wassim Fayed is also the owner of Tanoor, a Lebanese restaurant near Lake Union.
On Monday afternoon, the City of Sammamish condemned Fayed’s comments in the following statement:
Shortly after this statement was sent out, Fayed offered his resignation to the mayor, which the mayor accepted. The resignation was effective immediately.