POZ Community Forums
Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: red_Dragon888 on January 05, 2011, 05:22:55 am
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(really, now they are using this tactic again. The next thing you know is that Homos will marry your daughters) --- the war begins, the war never ended,
Tell Mecklenburg County Board: Censure Anti-Gay Politician Who Called LGBT People "Sexual Predators"
Targeting: Harold Cogdell Jr. (Commissioner), Dumont Clarke (Commissioner), Jennifer Roberts (Commissioner), see more...
Started by: Michael Jones
North Carolina had some shining moments this month, at least when it came to LGBT politics. Several members of its congressional delegation in the U.S. House, and both U.S. Senators from the state, voted in favor of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual troops.
The success of that vote prompted Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts to circulate a letter to her Republican and Democratic colleagues, asking them to sign on to a bipartisan 'thank you' note to these officials, for standing up for the principle of equality.
Only one Mecklenburg Commissioner didn't want to hear it. And he was all too pleased to let his colleagues know it.
"Homosexuals are sexual predators," Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James (pictured above, all the way to the right) wrote in an email to his colleagues, which was submitted to qnotes, an LGBT publication in North Carolina. "Allowing homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military with the endorsement of the Mecklenburg County Commission ignores a host of serious problems related to maintaining U.S. military readiness and effectiveness not the least of which is the current Democrat plan to allow homosexuals (male and female) to share showers with those they are attracted to.”
It's only the latest outburst from James, who previously made fun of a colleague whose son died of complications from AIDS, who once said all LGBT shove gerbils and hamsters up their rectums, and who said that people of color "live in a moral sewer." Is this really a politician that the rest of Mecklenburg County wants representing them?
Urge the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners to officially censure James for his latest outburst. This can't be the national reputation that official in Mecklenburg County want to build for their community.
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Change.org has a petition:
While most Americans celebrated the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Bill James, a County Commissioner in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, used it as an opportunity to bash LGBT people.
“Homosexuals are sexual predators,” James wrote. “Allowing homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military with the endorsement of the Mecklenburg County Commission ignores a host of serious problems related to maintaining U.S. military readiness and effectiveness, not the least of which is the current Democrat plan to allow homosexuals (male and female) to share showers with those they are attracted to.”
It’s not the first time Commissioner James has used his spot on the County Board to promote anti-gay bigotry. During debate over a domestic partnership bill, Commissioner James called homosexuality a “crime against nature” that should be prosecuted by police.
And last year, Commissioner James turned to a colleague whose son died from complications from AIDS, and called the son “a homo.” He then compared homosexuality to alcoholism, and argued that all gay people bring AIDS on themselves.
We can’t let this kind of hate speech by public officials go unanswered – and we have a chance in the next few days to do something about it.
Right now, the rest of the county commission is publicly debating whether to censure James. Condemnation by the commission would send a strong signal that bigotry by elected officers holds no place in our society.
Thousands of people from Mecklenburg and around the country already speaking out. Join them by signing the petition to the Mecklenburg County Board and tell them to censure James for his anti-gay attacks:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_mecklenburg_county_board_censure_anti-gay_politician_who_called_lgbt_people_sexual_predators?alert_id=uezSJFIOjS_CusbTngkBF&me=aa
Thanks for taking action,
The Change.org team
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One of the sad things about this situation is that Mr. James has been re-elected several times by the people in his district in the city.
Only one Mecklenburg Commissioner didn't want to hear it. And he was all too pleased to let his colleagues know it.
this article is a little bit disengenious though. James was not the only commissioner that didn't not think they should sign this letter as DADT was a federal matter and not part of the county’s agenda
Other county commissioners also objected to sending the letter, according to other emails also received by James. In one, Republican Vice Chair Jim Pendergraph says he is against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and relates a story of his encounter with a gay servicemember following his enlistmen in 1969.
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Fellow GOP Commissioner Karen Bentley also objected to the letter and voiced her opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, saying she was “highly disappointed” by Republican Burr’s affirmative vote on the issue on Dec. 18.
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Commissioner Harold Cogdell, Jr., a Democrat, also opposed the letter though he did so because matter was not an item on the county’s legislative agenda.
although I disagree with Mr. James and the many anti-gay things he has said (and he says a lot of them. I wasn't that long ago that he was talking badly about another Commissioner's gay son who died of AIDS), I do agree that Charlotte has enough issues without a group of NC county comissioners getting involved in a legislative issue that was not a part of their pervue.
by the way the early news I'm hearing in town is that James was censured at the special meeting held last night to discuss him and his comments.