I have decided that I will start watching the various anti-gay candidates and politicians around our local area and across North Carolina as we enter the 2006 election season.
My first “Anti-Gay Politicians Watch” focuses on the infamously anti-gay Vernon Robinson and Nathan Tabor as well as current Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education members Buddy Collins and Jeannie Metcalf. Thanks goes to The Winston-Salem Journal for keeping such good elections filing reports 
ANTI-GAY POLITICIANS WATCH NUMBER ONE
Vernon RobinsonÂ
According to an elections filing report from The Winston-Salem Journal, Robinson has filed to run as a Republican (duh!) in the 12th Congressional District. Robinson is a former Winston-Salem City Councilmember and a former candidate for the 5th Congressional District, which he lost to Congresswoman Virginia Foxx. Robinson’s record is clearly and overtly anti-gay.
In April 2004, during his campaign for the 5th Congressional District (which contained outrageously bigoted and homophobic advertisements), Robinson headed up a counter-protest to my protest of the Old Hickory Council, Boy Scouts of America, membership policies which discriminate against gay youth in membership.
According to a news article from The Winston-Salem Journal, Robinson’s platform includes a focues on social issues such as “…welfare, illegal immigration, homosexual marriage, abortion and crime…” (emphasis added). Robinson will be running against Democrat incumbent Mel Watt. As the Journal points out, this election would put two African-American candidates face-to-face with one being liberal and one being radically conservative and bigoted. The district in which Robinson runs is overwhelmingly Democrat with only 99,621 registered Republicans and 229,689 registered Democrats.
Buddy Collins & Jeannie Metcalf
Over all other Board of Education members in Winston-Salem, Collins and Metcalf are the most outspoken with their bigoted and anti-gay views. According to an elections filing report from the Winston-Salem Journal, Collins is running for re-election for an at-large seat. Metcalf is running for her fourth term.
Many people may remember when the now defunct GLSEN Winston-Salem lobbied the Board of Education to include sexual orientation and gender-identity in the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies of the School System. Collins and Metcalf were the most outspoken opponents to the request. The Winston-Salem Journal even got hold of an email from Metcalf in which she compared homosexuals to murderers and rapists. Collins, more than once, voiced his opinion that sin should not be protected.
Nathan Tabor
A while back I blogged about Tabor’s announcement that he would run for Horton’s 31st NC Senate District. Tabor has officially filed for the position.
Like Robinson, Tabor’s positions on LGBT issues are well known to be bigoted and overtly anti-gay. In a commentary piece written by Tabor, he says the following about marriage equality:
Protect the sanctity of marriage. It should be no surprise that former Democratic President Bill Clinton is making headlines by sending a video of congratulations to singer Elton John for his “marriage” to his homosexual lover. The Democratic Party is, quite simply, the party of gay marriage. Given this fact of modern political life, the GOP is in the perfect position to protect the sanctity of marriage. Republican leaders must spearhead initiatives to ban marriage between homosexuals. Dr. Timothy J. Dailey of the Family Research Council has written, “By their own admission, gay activists are not simply interested in making it possible for homosexuals and lesbians to partake of conventional married life. Rather, they aim to change the essential character of marriage, removing precisely the aspects of fidelity and chastity that promote stability in the relationship and the home.” The push for gay marriage is, at its core, an attack on the traditional family. For the sake of our children and our children’s children, the Republican Party must take concrete action to put a stop to gay marriage.
Tabor was one of many candidates, including Robinson, who tried to get teh 5th Congressional District in 2004. Agaion, like Robinson, Tabor lost the bid for the Republican nomination to Foxx.
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As I said in my post about Tabor’s original announcement about his intention to run, there is no doubt that homophobia, bigotry, hate and prejudice will once again rule the day in Forsyth County and Piedmont/Triad politics. It is a shame that our area must be subjected to being known as a place which produces such outlandish and outrageous radically conservative homophobes and bigots. Politicians like Robinson, Collins, Metcalf and Tabor would like nothing more than to see all LGBT citizens be subjected to second-class citizenship and permanent discrimination and institutionalized prejudice and harassment.
I urge all of you to get to know more about the various candidates running for office around these parts. I will help to keep you updated by posting regularly about the actions of these anti-gay politicians. So… keep a look out for my new “Anti-Gay Politician Watch” and keep updated about the people in our society who would like nothing more than to harm our community.
Technorati Tags: gay marriage, gay, lgbt, gay rights, vernon robinson, nathan tabor, buddy collins, jeannie metcalf, greensboro, winston-salem, triad, north carolina
February 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Your website is very useful and insightful.
However, I am very unclear as to what would qualify a candidate as deserving of being touted as Anti-Gay?
Quite simply, if a politician opposes Gay Marriage, does he/she meet your definition of “Anti-Gay” ??
As you know, most Democrats, including Kerry/Edwards, have not voiced their support for gay marriage. Surely, they aren’t Anti-Gay…
February 17th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
A politician who actively works to take away LGBT rights as we have them now or one who actively works to prohibit things like marriage for same-sex couples (i.e. supporting marriage amendments) would be deserving of being “Anti-gay”.
Since Kerry/Edwards opposed the marriage amendment they aren’t anti-gay. THey might not have supported full marriage for LGBT citizens but at least they were willing to offer equality in some way.
Politics is a game and Kerry and Edwards had to play along with it. People like Robinson, Tabor and Collins and Metcalf, however, actively and publicly support anti-gay initiatives and causes… therefore they are anti-gay.
February 17th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Good Answer.
The criticism against the Democratic party is often that it “pretends” to embrace minority groups but often fail to really make any head-way or progress in furthering minority rights…Do you think the Democratic leadership often pays mere lip service to the LGBT community?
Do you support Andrew Sullivan’s view that gay marriage should be gained Democratically or through the Judicial System? Gay marriage will never be realized in the South through the Democratic process. We still had segregated schools as late as 1969 in Georgia. If the courts had not forced integration – it may have never happened. To me, marriage equality through the courts is the only way it will happen…
February 17th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
[...] One reader of my blog, going as “Big Daddy Weave”, poses the following question after reading my first “Anti-Gay Politicians Watch“: The criticism against the Democratic party is often that it “pretends” to embrace minority groups but often fail to really make any head-way or progress in furthering minority rights…Do you think the Democratic leadership often pays mere lip service to the LGBT community? [...]
February 24th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
[...] Susan Wiseman, a teacher at East Forsyth High School, is taking the brunt of anti-gay prejudice and bias in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System. As stated in an earlier post (”Susan Wiseman is innocent; victim of WS/FCS anti-gay scheme“), the allegations thrown at Ms. Wiseman are blatantly false and motivated only the the anti-gay biases and prejudices of the Board of Education and other School System administrators and personnel (see the first “Anti-Gay Politicians Watch” for examples) [...]
February 28th, 2006 at 9:47 am
[...] I covered, very shortly, Buddy Collins in the first Anti-Gay Politicians Watch. Collins, a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, is probably the most biased and bigoted member of the Board when it comes to LGBT youth and students and LGBT issues. He is also running for re-election this November, along with his bigot-buddy Jeannie Metcalf. [...]
March 1st, 2006 at 2:28 pm
[...] According to an article from The Winston-Salem Journal, Robinson had originally filed to run in the 12th District against incumbent Democrat Mel Watt. Robinson will now be running in the 13th District, which is currently held by Democrat Brad Miller. [...]
March 15th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
[...] Well, well, well. I’m sure Buddy Collins and Jeannie Metcalf had a fun time at the Board meeting last night. [...]
March 15th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
[...] I echo the Revered Susan Parker’s statements, however. Not only can the state not afford to lose a great (and innocent) teacher like Ms. Wiseman, LGBT students cannot afford to lose their only advocate who also happens to be an employee of the very system and institution which is lead by those who would like nothing more than to see all homosexual “sinners” receive their just reward. [...]
March 22nd, 2006 at 6:24 pm
[...] Robinson, whom I have covered in two previous Anti-Gay Politicians Watches (here and here), is being brought to campus by the UNCG chapter of the College Republicans for their “Morals Week”. Monday will be “Red State Day” and, according to their blog, numerous Republican candidates for office and elected representatives will be present. [...]