National Geographic

At yesterday's giant anti-gay rally in Raleigh, local police told a small group of counter-protesters that their "Equal Rites For All" sign would not be allowed. The cops backed off after the intervention of a local news reporter. Stick with the clip until the end and listen to the speaker at the podium rail against diseased homosexuals and warn the audience that "all forms of marriage in Scandinavia" have "disappeared" because of them there gays.

As Tony Perkins noted in a post several below this one, for the first time in a century the GOP now controls both chambers of the North Carolina legislature. Yesterday thousands rallied in Raleigh in support of the renewed push for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. North Carolina, which already bans gay marriage by statute, is the only southern state without a constitutional ban.

State Capitol Police estimated about 3,500 people participated in the marriage amendment rally behind the Legislative Building and organized by the Forsyth County-based Return America group. Visitors carried placards, American and Christian flags and listened to ministers and other speakers argue it's time for the voters to cast yes or no votes for the amendment. "We're here today to protect families and make sure every child retains the right to have both a mother and a father," Bill Brooks with the North Carolina Family Policy Council told the crowd on the Halifax Mall. "We're here today to preserve our right to religious freedom and our sincere belief that anything other than marriage shared between a man and a woman goes against God's design for creation."

(Video via Towleroad)

"For the first time in over a century, Republicans hold a majority in the North Carolina House and Senate. That fact is not lost on Tar Heels conservatives, who are trying make the most of the opportunity by passing a Marriage Protection Amendment. Right now, two companion bills are making their way through the state capital to defend marriage. After seven years of trying, it's time for North Carolina to join the south in protecting marriage from pandering politicians and activist judges who would destroy the family to advance their careers! If you live in the Tar Heel state, I encourage you to get on the phone today and call your members at 919-733-4111. Ask them to give the people a voice--and a vote--on marriage." - Family Research Council head bigot Tony Perkins, via press release. NC residents...DO use the number Perkins provided.

Good As You has the details.

Clip description:

Coming out of the closet at work is difficult, but when your job involves children, being openly gay can be even tougher. Steve Perry talks with Tom Greene (Chapel Hill High School), Robert McGarry (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) & Danielle Riley (Jordan High School).

I'm told that Tom Greene, the North Carolina history teacher profiled below, is a JMG regular.

UPDATE: The story I reported early this morning has been revealed to be false. I should have listened to my gut before posting it.

A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report, the university says. In a message just released to the campus community, Chancellor Holden Thorp says: "The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime." "It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur," Thorp continued. "When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.

ORIGINAL POST

A University of North Carolina freshman was attacked last week by a man he says severely burned his wrist with an unknown object.

As the freshman took a walk on South Campus at about 3 a.m. on April 4, he said he ran into an acquaintance on the Craige Residence Hall footbridge. As the two spoke, a man sitting at a nearby picnic table stood up and grabbed him by the wrist, he said. “Here’s a taste of hell you f—-ing fag,” Matney remembered the man saying. The man branded Matney, who is gay, on the left wrist with an unidentified object, causing third- and fourth-degree burns that damaged three nerves and a tendon, leaving the freshman with no feeling in his thumb and limited mobility in his index finger, he said.

The attacked student says he escaped after punching his assailant. UNC plans to report the attack as a hate crime to the federal government.

NOTE: The URL for this post contains the original untrue claim.

"The purpose is not just to prevent Massachusetts people coming down. It's also to put a big letter of shame on the behavior. We don't want them here. We don't want them marrying. If you're going to do it in San Francisco, it's your own business. Bet it will pass with over 60 percent. The public in my opinion knows the difference between perversity and diversity." - Mecklinburg County Commissioner Bill James, predicting easy passage of North Carolina's pending constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

James has a long track record of outrageously homophobic statements, including his regularly-spouted claim that gays are "sexual predators" who are "7 to 11 times more likely to molest children." In December 2009 he mocked the AIDS-related death of a fellow legislator's child, saying to her, "You son was a HOMO? Really?" You can contact him here.

Same-sex marriage has long been banned in North Carolina by state statute, but a constitutional amendment has been swatted down for almost a decade by a Democrat majority legislature. Last year the GOP swept into power in both state chambers.

North Carolina GOP state Sen. James Forrester has introduced a ballot measure that would constitutionally ban the state from recognizing all LGBT unions. North Carolina already bans same-sex marriage by state statute.

Three-fifths of both the House and Senate must approve the amendment before it can appear on the ballot; the governor has no veto authority on amendments. Forrester, a Republican who has been the primary lead on the amendment for the past seven years, was joined in sponsoring the legislation by Jerry W. Tillman (R-Montgomery, Randolph) and Dan Soucek (R-Alexander, Ashe, Watauga, Wilkes). Twenty other senators, all Republican, are co-sponsoring the bill.

If approved, the measure will appear on the 2012 ballot.

Nineteen year old Michael Anderson (left) has confessed to the murder of Stephen Starr, 35, in Hickory, North Carolina, telling a police dispatcher that it was an overdose of Mucinex combined with Starr's unwanted advances that caused him to shoot and hack Starr to death.

Starr was found in bed in what law enforcement has described as one of the most gruesome crime scenes they’ve seen in years. Anderson was charged with Starr’s murder Monday afternoon and has his first court appearance Wednesday morning. Anderson called 911 while next to Starr’s body in the master bedroom, with a gun still in his hands, according to the 911 call. Anderson was holding the pistol, Fish said. In the call, Anderson says he took some pills that “made me go mad.” He tells the woman at the communications center that he shot his roommate three times and then used an ax and mutilated his body. “I Od’d on Mucinex DM. Dextromethorphan makes me feel a little weird and I took too many,” Anderson said.

About 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the call, the telecommunicator asks what sparked the attack. Anderson said it was because he was straight, and Starr was gay. According to him, the two met at a gay club. Anderson said he was straight, but went to the club to experiment. “I met him and went to his house and he took me in and I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him, and he kept trying. And I waited until he went to sleep and then I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, please help me.”

The comments on the above-linked newspaper article are predictably filled with citations of Leviticus and kindly Christian admonitions that the deceased had it coming. Here's Anderson's 911 call to report having committed the murder.

The Clayton, North Carolina home of a gay couple was destroyed by arson yesterday after the pair had suffered more than a year of anti-gay harassment.

The couple, who did not want to be identified out of fear for their safety, is staying in a motel after fire ripped through the house on New Castle Court, off Guy Road, around 1:30 a.m. Friday. They were out of town when the fire was set. A neighbor reported it. The fire is being investigated as an arson, said Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell, but he said it does not appear to be related to a string of suspicious fires in the area. A neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash against her, said there have been at least three separate incidents of anti-gay harassment at the home. A note with derogatory language was left in the mailbox, an anti-gay slur was written on the house with a marker, and the tires of a car parked in the garage were slashed, the neighbor said.

One neighbor spoke to local news, saying, "I felt sick to my stomach. I felt so sorry for the two gentlemen. They lost everything. We do believe that this is a hate crime."

We're seeing a third mini-wave in It Gets Better videos, some of which have great production values like this one.

(Tipped by JMG reader Rob)

Charlotte, North Carolina, the "Queen City Of The South," has been chosen to host the Democratic 2012 presidential convention. Charlotte had vied against St. Louis, Minneapolis-St.Paul, and Cleveland. Analysts say the city is a good fit for the Obama voter profile.

It also should be no surprise that, demographically, the city is well represented with the voters who made up the coalition that propelled Obama to victory in 2008: 33% of its residents are black, 11% are Hispanic, nearly 40% have a bachelor's degree (the national average is 27.5%), and its median age is 33.2 years (the national average is 36.5). For the whole state, 21% of the residents are black, 7% are Hispanic, nearly 26% have a bachelor's degree, and its median age is 36.6. But Charlotte also has potential drawbacks for Obama and the Democrats. For one thing, the city is closely associated with Bank of America, a recipient of the federal government's bank bailout. The bank's corporate headquarters are located in the city, and the Carolina Panthers' football stadium is named Bank of America Stadium.

The Republican convention will take place in Tampa. Two southern cities, interesting.

Wake County, North Carolina Republicans swept onto the Raleigh school board with the backing of the Tea Party are abolishing the busing of minority students from poor neighborhoods into better-funded school districts.

The new school board has won applause from parents who blame the old policy - which sought to avoid high-poverty, racially isolated schools - for an array of problems in the district and who say that promoting diversity is no longer a proper or necessary goal for public schools. "This is Raleigh in 2010, not Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s - my life is integrated," said John Tedesco, a new board member. "We need new paradigms." But critics accuse the new board of pursuing an ideological agenda aimed at nothing less than sounding the official death knell of government-sponsored integration in one of the last places to promote it. Without a diversity policy in place, they say, the county will inevitably slip into the pattern that defines most districts across the country, where schools in well-off neighborhoods are decent and those in poor, usually minority neighborhoods struggle.

The NAACP has filed a lawsuit. Wake County's school superintendent has resigned in protest. His expected replacement is a Tea Party activist and retired general who lists himself as a fan of Glenn Beck on his Facebook page.

North Carolina state Rep. Larry Brown says his state should eliminate all funding to treat adults with AIDS because it is caused by people living "perverted lifestyles."

Brown, R-Forsyth, made the comments when asked by the Winston-Salem Journal to talk about his goals for the N.C. General Assembly session set to begin this month. He began by discussing his support for a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a union between one man and one woman, which would forestall any efforts to allow same-sex marriage. He went on to say he thinks the government shouldn't spend money to treat HIV among people "living in perverted lifestyles." "I'm not opposed to helping a child born with HIV or something, but I don't condone spending taxpayers' money to help people living in perverted lifestyles," said Brown, who ran unopposed in the November election to win a fourth term. Brown wouldn't say Tuesday what he considers perverted, but did say that adults who get HIV through sexual behavior or drugs would be among those who should not be treated at government expense.

Brown has a long track records of making outrageous anti-gay statements. In October he referred to openly gay lawmakers as "legislative fruitloops." Brown can be reached at 336-972-4256. His email: Larry.Brown@ncleg.net.

(Tipped by JMG reader Keith)