SOUNDBITES — “Homosexual conduct is illegal in NC (even after Lawrence V Texas). We arrest 250 homosexuals each year in Mecklenburg alone for either a ‘crime against nature’ or ‘solicitation of a crime against nature’. Unlike prostitution (exchanging money), even suggesting homosexual sex is a criminal offense in NC. If we were all that ‘progressive’ would we be arresting 250 homosexuals a year? Setting up sting operations to de-infest areas where they congregate? Point is, if you want to delude yourself that homosexual conduct is ‘ok’ go ahead. The law, the police and the DA however have a different view.” —North Carolina city commissioner Bill James, who was caught on tape remarking “Your son was a homo?” to a colleague during a domestic partnerships debate, in an email written to a Charlotte resident. If you thought he’d opt to apologize for these comments, he won’t be:
“I think that if you’re someone who is homosexual and you believe that you are born that way and have every right to engage in that behavior, I think the offensive thing, I would surmise, is not the word ‘infest’ or ‘de-infest’ but the fact that the police are actually doing the sting operations,” he tells Q Notes when asked to explain his comments. “We can parse words — what phrase should I have used? But the central question for most people is not what particular term got used but whether the action was occurring. Was I accurate in saying there are these sting operations going on and those sting operations — whatever term you want to use — target homosexual men? That is why the county took and spent significant amounts of money to rework the park to take out certain landscaping things to prevent, once the sting operations cleared them out, prevent them from re-congregating — or re-infesting if you use my original term. … When someone trots out Lawrence v. Texas, I trot out the arrest statistics. I say if Lawrence v. Texas is the law of the land, why are there all these arrests? And that ends the discussion usually.”
terrwill
How ’bout every person who reads this thread contact
the NC Gov’s office and explain that due to our being
afraid of being arrested we will be boycotting the state
until such laws are removed from the books???
romeo
Lawrence v Texas negated such laws. Looks like there’s plenty of money to be made suing for false arrest in NC. But I think what he’s confusing here is sting arrests in public johns, etc., which is for public indecency, not homosexuality. The guy is a fucking idiot for not understanding the difference.
However, if not, The federal government needs to thoroughly investigate what’s going on in Mecklenburg if gay people are being arrested for merely being gay. I am filing a complaint with the FBI, I’m serious. I am also contacting the governor’s office in North Carolina. We’re not Uganda yet. Fuck that inbred cracker.
JR
I think he will be caught in bed with ‘a live boy’ soon enough… or a dead hooker… or a dead hooker who is a boy… or a live boy who is a hooker… I have no plans on ever going to NC, let alone driving through it…
Mike L.
Lol Terrwill I think that’ll have the opposite effect we would want.
The fact that he equates gays that have sex in public places with ALL gays is disturbing. I’m sure he thinks tha same way about other groups of minorities.
He is completely appalling.
Mike L.
Maybe he should have been there during a particular time in a particular airport public bathroom, hahahaha!!!
jere
Well, it would be an interesting question to figure out if targeted police stings aimed at selectively cracking down only on public indecency violations for men having sex with me would survive a serious federal challenge in courts. That said, anyone actually thrown by his argument or unable to rebut is either not thinking it through or is so astonished by his illogical assumptions and mental leapfrog as to be rendered speechless.
terrwill
No. 4 · Mike L.: ‘cept the Gays are the only group who
one is allowed to openly hate and not face severe punishment
for. If he said anything outrageous about a black, jew,
woman or even a freakin muslim he would be in a ton of shit
Everyone should contact NC officials and stay we are stayin away
They all may hate the Gays, but they love Gay dollars……
greenluv1322
Please, please, please stop glorifying villains! What’s up with you people? Damn this dude does not need any press. He’s one stupid fuck on the board and his side lost! For fuck sake gays…GET IT TOGETHER!!!
romeo
Investigation of discrimination and civil rights violations is within the jurisdiction of the FBI and part of its mission.
This is the field office in North Carolina:
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Charlotte Field Office
Attn: Spec. Agent Owen D. Harris
400 S. Tryon St., Ste. 900
Charlotte NC 28285
(704) 377-9200
kiltnc
I urge everyone to contact the Mecklenburg County Chairman – Jennifer Roberts.
NOTE: She is VERY gay friendly so be nice to her. She is trying to decide what actions she can take against Bill James.
Contact Commissioner Roberts:
704-336-2574
[email protected]
romeo
A note about voicing a complaint, our status is still somewhat confused in federal law, but the issue in Mecklinburg is false arrest. It is not illegal to be gay there or anywhere else in the U.S.. We should pursue this until we get the situation in Mecklinburg clarified. If gay people are indeed being harassed and arrested for merely being gay or suspected of it, then some DA’s, etc. need to be dealt with. This is not a local issue, it is a federal one.
dizzy spins
It is not illegal to be a homosexual or engage in homosexual conduct in NC. What Mr. James is referring to, I believe, is gay men getting arrested for having sex in parks or public bathrooms. Last time I checked, that was illegal for anyone to do.
terrwill
If ever there needed to be an example set, this one is it!
These frightwing-nutbag lunatics are empowered by the support
of those who spew their hate towards the Gays. However there
is a thing called going ova the line and this scumbag has\
clearly crossed it. EVERYONE needs to make a call or send
an email strongly stating that any and all plans to spend
any money in NC or on any business located in NC are now
cancelled. This scumbag needs to be made a huge example of
Chris G
This man is talking about public sex in parks. That is illegal for everyone, everywhere in the U.S. He should be impeached not because he is a nasty bigot, but because he is too stupid to know the difference between public and private spaces.
Republican
Besides being a bigot, this guy doesn’t even get the basic facts right. Lawrence was about sex between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own home. The kinds of arrests he’s talking about are people who do it in public (he even mentions a park). What an idiot.
FakeName
Unfortunately he’s also talking about solicitation. People are being arrested just for asking for sex. Virginia pulled this same shit right after Lawrence was handed down, arresting people for soliciting an act that was itself no longer illegal. And, shocker, the courts upheld the convictions.
AlwaysGay
Whenever I say heterosexual police purposefully treat gay people unfairly like the porn star Andrew last week, a whole bunch of gay people say oh no. Here is your proof. ” Setting up sting operations to de-infest areas where they congregate? Point is, if you want to delude yourself that homosexual conduct is ‘ok’ go ahead. The law, the police and the DA however have a different view.” Anti-gay bigotry is created and perpetuated by heterosexuals.
FakeName
Whenever I say heterosexual police purposefully treat gay people unfairly like the porn star Andrew last week, a whole bunch of gay people say oh no.
No, it’s when you pull crazy conspiracy accusations out of your ass that people say “oh no”. You did not claim that Andrew Grande was “treated unfairly”. You claimed that he was murdered.
http://www.queerty.com/amateur-porn-star-andrew-grande-dead-after-police-tasering-20091214/#comments
Every time you make a baseless accusation like that it allows for the very real harassment of LGBT people at the hands of unscrupulous police officers to be discounted and downplayed.
Josh NYC
When will it be illegal to Marry your cousin in North Carolina? See what happens? Mix that with Jesus and forget it – game over.
Tom
Lawrence v. Texas involved privacy protections for consensual adults at home. What this moron is referencing is lewd conduct (a la Larry Craig in the Minneapolis airport bathroom). It just happens that what he’s describing is the lewd conduct between two men in public. THIS IS NOT HOMOSEXUALITY! It’s the behavior that’s illegal, not the orientation. Sheesh!! This guy is the poster child for truly ignorant people we have to fight for our rights. We do ourselves a disservice to ignore them and their ignorance!
Benjamin
I think we should reconsider letting the south succeed.
Joseph
As a North Carolinian I am so offended.
Benjamin
Sorry Joseph. I’m just joking. You have to laugh in the face of extreme bigotry. It just seems like these southern lawmakers and police are the most “out of the closet” with the hate.
GayGOP
Perhaps I should move to Mecklenburg County, NC, and run against this guy. I’m just as conservative as him on 98% of the issues, and perhaps moreso on some, but at least I will have a law degree at the time I move there, and the brains enough to use that degree. I could at least primary him out.
Benjamin
No. 24 · GayGOP
I’m a liberal, but I’d vote for you over this jackass.
Attmay
@24 GayGOP:
I’ve been saying that the Log Cabin Republicans and Stonewall Democrats should have been setting up primary challenges to bigots within their respective parties.
Forrest
As a Charlotte Mecklenburg resident I would like to provide some context. Bill James is not representative of what the majority of the county residents think, Bill James is a remnant of a much more phobic Mecklenburg from back in the 90s. He is a District commissioner. And has been hiding in his gerrymandered suburban ultraconservative turf forever. He has been obsessed with us for years and is very much ignored by the rest of the community even by most Republicans.
The county is full of Northern and west coast transplants and gay friendly Democrats have been winning the majority of At Large ( which are the ones that really count) seats on the Commission for years.
Please don’t let his rantings overshadow a great victory for us.
We won 6/3. In the new year Charlotte City Council which also is dominated by gay friendly members from both parties is going to pass even more gay inclusive laws covering benefit,employment and more. All of us in Charlotte appreciate the messages of suppport and condemnation of this pig but let’s not allow his ego to overshadow the great progress on the local gay rights front here in Charlotte.
FakeName
I think we should reconsider letting the south succeed.
Secede.
Forrest
Well thanks a lot for the support “Fakename”. Those of us in the South are fighting battles everyday. We don’t need ridicule from fellow gays in the rest of the country.. Not every can or wants to live in CA or NY. And you can’t really say that those states have been doing us proud lately.
Benjamin
No. 27 · FakeName
Stupid spell check. Sometimes typing + wine + rage make me dull. My apologies to the publican.
And Forrest, I was the one joking about the south. I feel for my non-whack-job brothers and sisters in fundamentalist Christan country. I live in Non-Chicago-Illinois, so I can relate to a certain extent. Every other time my boyfriend and I go for a walk someone yells faggot at us out of a moving car. Yankees get into this too. And I hate to cast the Red State Blue State canard, but all I’m saying is that it seems like the old confederacy is the backbone upon which the ideological divide in this country is arranged. We, being a favorite pink punching bag in the “battle for traditional morality”, fall victim to the sort of willful ignorance that this particular segment of the population is so fond of encouraging. We are the monsters under their beds for the majority of the people in these places, and while that shouldn’t discourage the fight, and while it is surely not localized to these areas, the south seems to be a more than comfortable home for the free range bigot. The south isn’t somehow inherently bigoted real estate. But the majority of the people living there seem to be. Or at least their leaders act that way.
Though Rick Santorum is from Pennsylvania, so clearly hate doesn’t just whistle Dixie.
romeo
@ Forrest: Most of us had no way of knowing the context. This douchebag seemed quite certain that the DA was prosecuting gays simply for being gay. From what he said, it looked like law enforcement was going considerably further than just lewd conduct prosecutions into trumping up charges against any and all gay people for mere suspicion of trying to meet each other. Do you have gay bars there? I’m assuming you do. Are gay people arrested there for propositioning each other in those sorts of environments? If so, such prosecutions are contrary to federal law. That’s what we’re concerned with.
You’re there. Look into it. Gay people there might be so intimidated by the general homophobia in that area that they might let themselves be railroaded not realizing what’s being done to them.
Forrest
We have dozens of gay bars. There has not been harassment,stings or raids like in Atlanta in this era.I am sure there could have been some bad behavior that has not been reported but that is the case everywhere. I have my ear pretty close to the ground though and would have heard about anything continual.
There were incidents back in the 80s from what people tell me but much has changed since then. And we have several out gay cops. Our police chief goes out of his way to be diversity friendly. Bank of America and Wells Fargo provide DP’s. We have dozens of gay community groups and a community foundation. Bill James is a relic of a past age,is what I am trying to say. The two other Republicans who voted no expressed their disagreement in neutral civil terms with no reference to sexuality. They were still wrong and their side still lost but even they can’t stand Bill James.
Doubtless, we have a way to go but the major metros of the Carolinas: Charlotte,Columbia,Charleston and the Triad and Triangle all have at least one and several have comprehensive GLBT inclusive ordinances. Add Charlotte City Council is passing more in the new year. It ain’t Uganda down here.
The Swimmer
HITLER WOULD BE PROUD!!!
The Swimmer
Remember, if these people had their way we would be exterminated in the millions just like the Jews during the Holocaust. That is the penultimate goal of these social conservatives, to bring back the Holocaust and get rid of the undesirables.
AlwaysGay
@FakeName
No conspiracy, just bigotry. Through their own bigotry incidents like Andrew Grande’s murder happened. No words need to be spoken between the officers they already hate gay people and will take unnecessary force against a gay person at their own will.
FakeName
Through their own bigotry incidents like Andrew Grande’s murder happened.
Andrew Grande’s death happened because rather than taking a collar for a dime bag of pot he shoved it down his own throat and choked himself to death. It was not murder, and again you’ve diminished the very real problem of police brutality by insisting that it was.
tazz602
Forrest – I have family there and have visited several times and you are right. This windbag is NOT representative of NC, but there are people in NC who think like that. I have a nephew in the mountains in the rural western part of the state who cannot even think of coming out right now because of the people around him. It’s just like anywhere else – there are those that treat everyone with the respect and love that God demands and people deserve, and there are those who pervert Gods words and allow their own vile hatred and fear rule their conscience.
We have people that think the same here in AZ who are also protected by their carefully drawn republican turfs. These gas-bags are everywhere and need to be exposed for the small minded vile creatures they are and hopefully will have viable challengers to their positions in the next elections – even moderate Republicans would better than the likes of him and a step forward.
B SF
“Re-infesting”? SERIOUSLY? He compares gays with pests and he wonders why people are pissed?
YellowRanger
Can we please retroactively let the confederacy secede? Maybe we can convince them to take Oklahoma and Kansas with them.
Pariah
What is it with the linguistics these people use? Talking in circles like Sarah Palin..it’s the verbal equivalent of a monkey throwing shit through the bars of it’s cage.
Michael
I wonder if it were a straight guy doing a chick in the bushes if they’d arrest them for lewd behavour or just watch and have a circle jerk?
Mike
the home of the brave and the land of the free …
… indeedelly NOT.
AlwaysGay
@FakeName
You don’t sit on someone’s back while they are choking. The heterosexual police did that at least twice to Andrew Grande. It was murder.
FakeName
You still don’t know when the police realized he was choking and you still don’t know that the police are straight. This was not murder.
But you keep on squawking, Captain Conspiracy. Make it that much harder for actual victims of anti-gay attacks to be taken seriously.
Bob
I wonder if they realize that the worlds largest online distributor of gay porn is located in Charlotte, NC??
danman
I was one who was arrested by charlotte police for being approached by undercover cop and he suggested oral sex. When I agreed i may be interested I was instructed to follow him and when i did a police car rolled up behind me and was arrested. I never agreed to sex nor did i ask him for sex. Charlotte police definitely entrap. It is a no win once you are arrested. my life was ruined , lost job and much more. You can go to court and yell entrapment.. but you have already lost, even though you may win. Charlotte is by far the worst city in N.C. for this unbelieveable waste of dollars.