NC Lieutenant Governor and Winston-Salem Pastor Foster Hate Against the LGBTQ Community

NC Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is at it again--being a bigot, at which he excels. During a Nov. 14 service at Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, he once again targeted the LGBTQ community--my community--with harmful and discriminatory rhetoric. I find it especially troubling because it happened in a church, and it came from Robinson, an elected official with the duty to represent ALL North Carolinians.

I know bigots like Robinson are still around, but I'm increasingly sick and tired of their homophobia and denial that their hateful rhetoric leads to violence against the LGBTQ community. If an elected official says something--especially in a church--it's almost like getting a divine compensation to avoid any consequences for what you say. Why do people like Robinson think such talk is ok? In defense, he mumbles on about how he'll "protect the Constitutional rights" of the LGBTQ community, but don't let that fool you. Besides, our actual Constitutional rights are few and far between. At any rate, if he doesn't respect me and my community, why should I believe him? Also, why should I respect him?

I won't go into what he said because it's stupid just as Robinson is stupid. And another thing--he's so stupid that he doesn't realize the very language he uses and the Christian scriptural bias and complicity he hides behind is the very same defense once used by white Christians to enforce and perpetuate the slavery of African Americans like Robinson himself. But that whooshing sound you hear is the jetplane of irony flying right over Robinson's big ol' jug head.

Obviously, Robinson loves to run off at the mouth, as he did back in October about books he didn't like in NC school libraries that feature the LGBTQ community. But rather than simply go through the process to have the books in question reviewed and possibly removed, he had to publicly insult my community. This won't stand, and I called him out publicly during my Charlotte Pride Interfaith Service address back in October. And I'll continue to call him out until he apologizes, resigns or is voted out of office.

I'm also not surprised that Robinson's speech took place in Berean Baptist Church which is infamous for its conservative political activities led by Rev. Ron Baity. Can someone please catch Baity in some violation of nonprofit laws or whatever and shut him down? Unfortunately, I have a bit of a personal connection with Baity. His late wife was one of my teachers when I attended a Christian school from kindergarten through my senior year. I think I only saw the man once, but his church was idolized by many at that school, and his kind of bigoted, small-minded religion was the rule. I previously called out Baity for his homophobia back in 2011, when gay marriage in NC was on the statewide ballot.

So Baity and Robinson are 2 hateful peas in a sad, shriveled up pod. And both of them say they won't back down. Ok, neither will I. They are public figures, and what they say matters. For better or worse, people listen to them. And it's reprehensible for any religious or political leader to be creating a climate of violence against anyone, LGBTQ or otherwise. The rest of us must hold them accountable.