By Hunter Hines
Christian Action League
November 10, 2017
Equality NC, the state’s premiere LGBTQ activist organization, says that out of the 65 candidates they endorsed 45 won important municipal elections on Tuesday. They cite the Charlotte and Durham mayoral and City Council races as key victories.
In other parts of the country, four transgender candidates won elections, and one became the first transgender state representative.
Matt Hirschy, the current interim executive director for Equality NC, says this year their organization endorsed more candidates than ever before, and the results were nothing but amazing.
Hirschy added, “The wave of newly elected openly LGBTQ candidates will be vital in our efforts to keep the state moving forward. In a state that still suffers the legacy of HB 2 and the very real effects of HB 142, out-elected and pro-equality representation have never been more important.”
On their website, Equality NC said that the election victories were from municipalities ranging from “some of the largest cities such as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro to smaller towns such as Harrisburg and Mount Pleasant.”
Democrat Vi Lyles defeated the more traditional values candidate for Mayor, Republican Kenny Smith in Charlotte. Lyles is said to be committed to passing “fully inclusive…non- discrimination protections for LGBTQ residents and visitors” to the Queen City. Eight candidates for the Charlotte City Council endorsed by Equality NC also won their seats.
Lyles, as well as other Progressives on the Charlotte City Council, were at the heart of the crisis which precipitated the need for HB 2. She and her colleagues will likely revisit the issue the first opportunity they get.
According to reports from the Raleigh News and Observer and Equality NC, seven openly gay candidates secured seats for city council members: Vernatta Alston, Durham City Council; Michelle Kennedy, Greensboro City Council; Jane Campbell, Davidson City Council; Karen Stegman, Chapel Hill City Council; Tamara Sheffield, Salisbury City Council; Donald Webb, Pinetops Town Board of Commissioners; and Jerry Windle, Morrisville City Council.
Tyler Titus, who is a woman but identifies as a man, won a seat on the School Board in Erie, Pennsylvania. Andrea Jenkins, who is a man but identifies as a woman won election to the Minneapolis City Council. Phillipe Cunningham, a woman who identifies as a man also won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council. And Danica Roem, a man who says he’s a woman, won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Dr. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said these wins by LGBTQ candidates or those supportive of the LGBTQ agenda are significant. “I don’t believe that we can stick our heads in the sand and dismiss them as a fluke. The country has moved more left on these issues, but I don’t believe it’s a signal of doom for social conservatism,” he said.
“It painful to see this happen,” he added, “and we can never give up trying to bring our country back around. Not because we are bigots, but because there are solid reasons to politically oppose those who espouse a distortion of human sexuality, which is at the core of our existence. You can no more remove the Judeo-Christian parameters on sex and gender with impunity than you can remove the reactor that contains nuclear energy. Sex is much like the energy that powers the world. If it’s properly contained and channeled there is an abundant blessing. If it’s undisciplined it destroys. Although there are political issues beyond our sex and gender, no nation can sustain freedom in the face of moral deterioration.”
Dr. Creech also said North Carolina has become an epicenter for gay rights activism. The Human Rights Campaign and other Progressive groups from outside the state are spending millions of dollars funding campaigns that support their cause. “They know to win the South they must take the Tar Heel state,” he said.