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State lawmaker the author of homophobic email?

Post on October 5, 2010 by 10 Comments »

This was published today by the Winston-Salem Journal:

E-mail sent from Rep. Larry Brown’s account uses questionable language on invitation to event

By Wesley Young

An e-mail sent from Rep. Larry Brown’s personal election account calls homosexuals ”queers” and refers to “legislative fruitloops” in commentary on an award  that Democratic House Speaker Joe Hackney is scheduled to receive from Equality NC.

Equality NC promotes issues important to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The group is giving its legislative leadership award to Hackney at its Equality Gala in November.

Brown, a Kernersville Republican, was among a number of Republican legislators receiving information about the event from Paul Stam, the leader of the GOP in the state House. 

Brown’s e-mailed response to Stam and copied to many  GOP legislators, said in full: ’I hope all the queers are thrilled to see him. I am sure there will be a couple legislative fruitloops there in the audience.’

Brown said today he had no comment on the e-mail.

“I didn’t send you one,” Brown said.

When asked to confirm whether he wrote the e-mail, Brown said: ‘I’m not saying I did and I’m not saying I didn’t.’”

Brown has served three terms in the House and would be in line to become a committee chair if the Republicans were to retake the House this fall.

 

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Comments (Closed):10

  1. Rob Schofield
    October 5, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    Under the Dome is reporting that House Republican leader Rep. Paul Stam says that Brown needs to apologize…to the people to whom he sent the email who were also offended.

    Got that? According to the man who wants to be Speaker of the North Carolina House, elected officials are free to use any kind of hateful slur they want in emails so long as they apologize to the people who received it and didn’t like it. Anyone else who may have been offended that an elected public servant used hateful, bigoted language is apparently unworthy.

  2. Thomas Settle
    October 5, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    Wow. An old white man is a bigot. What is the news in that?

    I can do you one better. State Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Rockingham, is claiming in print ads that he cut state spending $3 billion last year, a blatant lie. He is currently a committee chairman.

    Are you outraged?

  3. Jeff Shaw
    October 6, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Yeah, who cares about bigotry? We should just expect it.

    .. .that’s really your argument? That’s pretty sad and shameful.

  4. Thomas Settle
    October 6, 2010 at 10:48 am

    Um, no. The question was which moral wrong is worse and are you equally outraged?

  5. Jeff Shaw
    October 6, 2010 at 11:20 am

    No, that’s no the question. The question is whether one should be outraged by blatant bigotry.

    Your answer is no. Most people would disagree with you. But it is good to know your answer.

  6. Thomas Settle
    October 6, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    You are obviously a flaming liberal who cannot see the subtlety in an uncertain world.

    Where did I say we should not be outraged by bigotry? Of course it is unacceptable, but what is shocking about an old white man from North Carolina being a bigot? This is Jesse country after all.

    The telling thing is that you won’t even address the questions posed in my original comment.

    So, which is worse, bigotry or a lie? Can you deign to criticize a power broker in the NCDP status quo?

    Brown is an idiot from a hardcore bible district. He is only elected because he is in one of the ultra Republican districts your side drew in order to have multiple blue districts.

    Come to reality Jeff. Step away from punditry and blind faith.

    I’m polling folks in the coffee shop I am in right now and they all say a lie is worse, because you know where the bigot comes from and you can understand his mindset.

    The liar maintains power through the use of the lie.

  7. Rob Schofield
    October 6, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    Uh, Thomas. Calm down my friend.

    This was a blog post about anti-LGBT bigotry. Don’t get all hot under the collar because people have no great desire to turn the comments on said post into a debate about a totally unreleated campaign statement by another politician.

    Having said this, I will say that if Cole said precisley what you allege, it was certainly inaccurate – though not an outrageous lie.

    The fact is that state tax dollar spending IS down well over $3 billion in the current FY. Now, this is clearly the byproduct of the recession and some of the hole was made up for by additional federal help, but in the overheated world of campaign rhetoric, Cole’s characterization of events comes in about 200th on the list of outrageous statements made thus far this year.

    Add to this the fact that Cole is one of the most conservative Dems in the G.A. and a frequent foe of a lot of worthwhile public structures and services and his claim of the “spending cutter” moniker is actually not too far off.

    How this has anything to do with Larry “Froot Loops” Brown, however — other than being a transparent attempt by you to change a subject that you would rather see not get much attention — remains a mystery.

  8. Thomas Settle
    October 6, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    Those are fair points Rob.

    The only thing it has to do with Larry Brown is that both he and Cole are elected officials and both he and Cole are making ridiculous statements.

    So to me both he and Cole deserve equal scorn.

  9. Rob Schofield
    October 6, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Well, not to belabor this, but they just aren’t equal.

    If Politican A said something like “All _____ people (you fill in the race or religion or sexual orientation) are evil people” and Politican B uttered some kind of typical campaign hyperbole that stretched the truth like “I slashed spending” or “I locked up dangerous criminals,” there just isn’t a comparison.

    Politican A is clearly deserving of a much higher degree of scorn.

    Now, I certainly understand your frustration with exaggerations by Rep. Cole or any other politician, but Brown’s statements are not mere exaggerations. They signify a deep-seated, hateful attitude and absolutley shocking lack of judgement. Moreover, if he’s so obtuse and disturbed that he’s willing to say such a thing in what amounted to a public statement, one can only imagine what he says in private.

  10. Khyber Pass
    October 6, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Anyone know if there’s a bus ticket fund to which we might contribute to send Mssrs. Brown and Stam to Alabama, Arizona, or Alaska. Even Mississippi. Let them serve where they will be among their peers, is my idea. North Carolina’s Republican counties are suffocating under the weight of the talk from the right wing.. If I could sell my house and go where people are kinder to those who are a bit different, I would. Hatred wears on one’s soul.