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North Carolina County Commissioner: ‘Homosexuals are sexual predators’

North Carolina County Commissioner: ‘Homosexuals are sexual predators’

A North Carolina County Commissioner known for his outspoken anti-gay views, has called gay people “sexual predators” in an e-mail to fellow Mecklenburg County Commissioners.

Bill James

Republican Bill James made the slur in responding to an email from fellow commissioner Jennifer Roberts, who had requested that commissioners sign a “thank you” note to the state’s Washington D.C. congressional delegation whom had voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Via Matt Comer of North Carolina-based QNotes:

“Homosexuals are sexual predators,” James wrote in one email from a string of several between county board members, Roberts and County Manager Harry Jones.

“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 US 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.”

James added, “The US Government would not allow Hetero men and women to share showers and other personal facilities yet the leading homosexual in Congress (Barney Frank) thinks it is OK for homosexuals to do so allowing enlisted men and women to fall prey to higher ranking or more powerful homosexuals who ogle them (or worse).”

This is not the first time James has inflamed the LGBTQ community with homophobic remarks.

A year ago during debate on domestic partner benefits for county employees, James leaned over to his Democratic colleague, Vilma Leake, and called her son a “homo,” reports Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend.

Leake’s son died from AIDS in the 1990s. When Leake heard that, she replied: “Don’t make me hurt you. Don’t do that to me. Don’t talk to me about my son.”

James refused to apologize, saying “It is akin to someone whose son is an alcoholic and died from the disease, using his death from drinking as justification to have the taxpayers pay for more booze.”

Comer reports that James, a twenty year veteran of the county board, has a history of inflammatory remarks.

“These remarks are shocking, though not surprising considering his past rhetoric,” said the Mecklenburg Gay and Lesbian Political Action Committe (MeckPAC), in a statement Tuesday.

“Last year, Commissioner James called fellow Commissioner Vilma Leake’s deceased son a ‘homo.’ Commissioner James has also said that black Americans live in a ‘moral sewer.’ Such statements continue to be well over the line of decency and civility, and should be called out as the ignorant bigotry they are,” said MeckPAC.

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