Matt Comer of Q-Notes brings us some great news from the largest county in North Carolina — Mecklenburg — home to Charlotte. Its County Board of Commissioners approved domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples in a 6-3 vote. Congratulations, CharMeck!

The Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners split along party lines at their meeting Dec. 15, approving domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples 6-3. The county joins six other local North Carolina governments offering similar benefits.

Several members of the public spoke on the domestic partner plan prior to the board’s vote. Those opposed cited moral reasons for opposing the plan.

“I’m from the old school and I know what is right and I know what is wrong,” citizen Jason Colley said. “I know what is good and I know what is bad. I do not wish my taxes to go to something of this nature. It seems like to me the minorities always get their way in whatever minority class it may be. I thought we were governed by majority rule. It doesn’t seem that way.”

African-American, Democratic Commissioner George Dunlap took exception to Colley’s remarks. “The majority hasn’t always been right,” he said.

This was not a vote without controversy as one of the Republican commissioners submitted a ludicrous, irrelevant anti-gay white paper by the Corporate Resource Council (CRC), “The Hidden Costs of Domestic Partnerships,  that contended adding same sex-partners to health plans would be economically harmful. Of course the focus is on HIV/AIDS and gay men.

“Advocates of domestic partner plans claim that employers with domestic partner benefits have not experienced an increase of cost because of HIV/AIDS,” the paper reads. “However, the numbers of HIV infections and AIDS cases consistently reveal that HIV/AIDS affects gay men disproportionately. In fact, one observer estimates that ‘the incidence of AIDS among 20- to 30-year-old homosexual men is roughly 430 times greater than among the heterosexual population at large.’”

The CRC’s “observer” is Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a regular pundit for the “ex-gay” movement who has said Prozac could cure homosexuality and whose controversial works have been used by anti-LGBT organizations as proof sexual orientation is a changeable, non-innate characteristic. The cited HIV/AIDS statistic in the CRC white paper comes from Satinover’s 1996 book, “Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth.”

I think Satinover’s association alone disqualifies any serious consideration of the paper, considering his work is cited by the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH). Ally Commissioner Jennifer Roberts said:

“I’m a little disappointed it was included in the staff report as an objective report,” she said. “This was not an objective report … it claims homosexuals are less healthy than heterosexuals. Clearly that report is not very objective.”

The other good news is that, as a result of the election of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, Q-Notes reports that he will soon move to address the fact that the City of Charlotte does not have anti-discrimination policies on the books for LGBTs, and offers no offer domestic partner benefits.

Commissioner Bill “Perversity is not diversity” James and his bigot eruption

Bill James and I go way back on the Internets. I knew that this  completely, pathologically homo-obsessed man who focuses on sex acts would become completely unhinged by this vote.  A classic example of what he has sent out on his County email:

From: Commissioner Bill James

To: =emails deleted=

Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:56 AM

Subject: Perversity is not diversity

You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is “normal”? If you do, you are frankly nuts.

A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them “golden showers”? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the “Man-Boy Love Association” that promotes sex with underage boys?

So believe me, no who is familiar with James could have been surprised by this (3 hours 59 min into the hearing, covered by WBTV):

Commissioner Bill James asked Commissioner Vilma Leake about her son after she made an impassioned speech about her son dying of AIDS.

“…A son that I birthed and died of AIDS and I did not know that … in 2010 I would be sitting here …. to defend his lifestyle,” Leake said.

But after that revelation, tempers flared when James leaned over and whispered something to Leake about her late son and it was caught on the microphone.

Here’s James’ comment…and Leake’s response.

James: “Your son was a homo, really?”

Leake: “I’m going to hit you, don’t talk about my son that way.”

There’s actually a poll on the WBTV web site about James (results as of 12:30 ET):