Staunchly anti-LGBTQ North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson (R) was caught saying that only men should lead, and his reasoning is that elementary school teachers are “predators” who must be scared away by “big and hairy and ugly” men.
“Not one time in my life when I faced adversity did I say, ‘You know, I shall overcome,’” Robinson said at a church last month. “My God tells me that when I face adversity that, number one, I am to stand up like a man! M-A-N!”
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“We are called to be led by men,” he said, getting applause, according to WRAL. “God sent women out… when they had to do their thing, but when it was time to face down Goliath, [He] sent David.”
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“Not Davita, David,” he said. “Not Momma Moses. Daddy Moses.”
Robinson then said that God “knew what he was doing when he made men big and hairy and ugly.”
“It’s because you’re supposed to scare away predators, whether they’re in the woods or standing in front of your kids in elementary school,” he said.
He was referring to the recent moral panic about elementary school teachers “grooming” children, grooming being a set of acts related to child sex abuse. Conservatives for months have been saying that mentioning the existence of LGBTQ people in front of children is grooming and pedophilia, a moral panic that has led to teachers losing their jobs and death threats against school board members.
In March, Robinson said that anyone talking to a child about LGBTQ people is “doing it to twist that child’s mind” and is “just as much of a groomer as that person was down at that playground.”
Robinson has a long history of anti-LGBTQ comments. Last year he referred to LGBTQ people as “filth.”
“I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,” he said at the time. “And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like it that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”
He also claimed that teachers were practicing “indoctrination” of children by reading a book that “talks about cutting off male genitalia and hormone therapy.” The book, entitled George by Alex Gino, is about a trans girl named Melissa coming out to her family and friends with help from her best friend, and it does not contain graphic descriptions of genitalia.
Later that year, Robinson said that he thought he was superior to gay people because he’s straight, saying that gay people are worse than “maggots” because maggots serve a “purpose.”
“[Straight] people are superior because they can do something [gay] people can’t do,” Robinson said. “Because that’s the way God created it to be. And I’m tired of this society trying to tell me it’s not so.”
