A supporter of the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor painted a donkey rainbow colors and paraded it in front of a rally in an elaborate – yet bizarre – attack on transgender people.
At an event for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s (R) gubernatorial campaign, someone painted a donkey rainbow colors, put a unicorn horn on it, and brought it in front of Robinson as he gave a speech. The crowd laughed.
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“If you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere to go.”
The joke was that it’s the famous “gender unicorn,” which is used to explain basic vocabulary around LGBTQ+ identities. Robinson ranted about the gender unicorn in his 2021 speech at the state’s Republican convention, saying that he had just seen it online for the first time.
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“I thought to myself, that is not a rainbow unicorn,” Robinson said in 2021. “That is a painted-up, marked-up, dressed-up jackass.”
WRAL News said that he insisted that people can dress up a donkey, but “test its DNA, and it’s a donkey.” He then called LGBTQ+ people “demonic” and accused them of forcing their views on children.
One of his supporters apparently remembered that speech, hence the painted donkey at the Robinson event in 2024.
“You found that thing!” Robinson shouted at the man, who was smiling, apparently proud of himself. “What Democratic hellhole did you find that thing in?”
“That is a rainbow, striped up painted jackass!” he said, promising to tell the “story” behind the donkey later. “I can’t believe the impact that story actually made.”
Robinson’s long history of inflammatory comments is being highlighted as the November election looms closer.
In March 2023, Robinson declared that God created him to battle against LGBTQ+ rights and added, “Makes me sick every time I see it — a church that flies that rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face of God almighty.”
In 2017, he wrote on Facebook, “You CAN NOT love God and support the homosexual agenda.”
In 2021, Robinson compared LGBTQ+ people to cow dung and claimed straight people are superior to gay people due to their ability to procreate. In the same sermon, he declared there are only two genders and disparaged trans people’s bodies: “I don’t care how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up and dress yourself up, you still either one of two things — you either a man or a woman.”
He also said people who support events like Drag Queen Story Hour do so because they desire to molest children.
He has previously proclaimed that being gay is a step before pedophilia, that former First Lady Michelle Obama is secretly a trans woman, and that trans-affirming people are “devil-worshipping child molesters.” He also condemned gay people as an “abominable sin” in response to the 2016 Pulse massacre.
Robinson created an education task force to investigate and remove LGBTQ+ literature from public schools, as well as report instances of LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools. Teachers’ names, employers, and information were released unredacted in the report, yet many of the complaints weren’t verified or even authenticated.
Also in 2021, he refused to heed calls for his resignation after he declared that homosexuality and “transgenderism” are “filth.” He has also called the trans equality movement “demonic” and “full of the spirit of Antichrist.”
In November of that year, he allegedly wagged his finger in the face of a state lawmaker who made a speech about supporting LGBTQ+ people.
He also called claims that millions of Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust “hogwash.”