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State Senator Jim Forrester (R-Gaston), is filled with hate for the LGBT residents of North Carolina. This legislator has, for the last six years as the first order of business, filed a marriage amendment (that has failed to reach a vote each time). He is also in favor of preventing gay and lesbian couples from adopting.
In his latest bigot eruption, Forrester adds overt racism to his dance card, blaming the states increasingly progressive tilt to blacks that dare to vote, as well as the Homosexual Lobby in the state capital of Raleigh.
“The (state) Senate is as liberal as I’ve ever seen it,” Forrester said at the monthly meeting of the Iredell County Young Republicans on Tuesday night in Mooresville.“Slick city lawyers and homosexual lobbies and African American lobbies are running Raleigh,” Forrester added.
…So it may be viewed with some irony that Forrester said the GOP would likely have taken back control of at least one chamber of the General Assembly in 2008 had it not been for what he called the “Obama Tsunami.”
“It brought a lot of blacks out who don’t normally vote,” he said.
The 10-term Republican (who is running unopposed this year) then tossed barbs at outgoing State Senator Julia Boseman.
He said state Sen. Julia Boseman – the first openly gay person ever elected to the North Carolina General Assembly – “took a bunch of money from a big lesbian group.” Forrester said a male senator is rumored to be gay and is currently fighting off charges that he shot another man.“And I say good riddance to them,” Forrester said. He said that neither of the two legislators showed any support for bills Forrester proposed to ban same-sex marriage in the state.
Forrester noted that he “is not against homosexuals.” He said he has gay patients who see him in his medical practice “and I treat them like everyone else.”
Any self-respecting, sane gay or lesbian in his district should not give Forrester one damn dime to his medical practice.
The local chapter of P-FLAG, led by Amy Sifford and Robert Kellogg, contacted Forrester to invite him to a face-to-face meeting to discuss his comments. Kellogg also approached the Gaston NAACP to see if it would participate in a joint meeting with Forrester (that chapter president, Clyde Walker, has requested the state leaders’ advice on how to respond to the legislator).
Forrester said Friday he would decline the invitation from the Gaston County chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays because he believes he’d be criticized for his conservative policies, particularly his stance against same-sex marriage.
“I doubt I will go to the meeting, but I appreciate the invitation anyhow,” Forrester said. “I don’t think it would be a constructive meeting. I think it would just increase animosity toward me, and I don’t want that.”
Gee, I wonder why?
PFLAG’s invitation was e-mailed to the senator on Friday, Kellogg said. Forrester said he would read it with interest, but said a meeting with the group would be unlikely.“They don’t like my philosophy of traditional family values,” he said. “I don’t believe what they believe and they don’t believe what I believe, and they’re entitled to do that in this free country of ours.”
The Blend was contacted by Robert Kellogg, asking us to publicize this effort to start a dialogue on diversity with Forrester:
I would appreciate any help you could give in attempting to convince our state Senator to respond to the calls of his constituents and explaining the meaning of his words.
The fact is that if Dr. Forrester is a responsible physician who treats gay constituents, why is Sen. Forrester trying to legislate against any and all civil rights for his patients? At the very least he should meet and not dismiss them — as a lawmaker.
A portion of the P-FLAG letter is below the fold.
Sen. Jim Forrester has a long history bigoted comments and proposed legislation against gays, now it appears as though African-Americans as well as lawyers can be added to the list.The Gaston County chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) would like to take this opportunity to state passionately how offensive and unprofessional Senator Forrester’s remarks were.
Senator Forrester made several references to homosexual and African-American lobbyists running Raleigh. Forrester also pointed out his opposition to recent legislation which has advanced civil rights for both African-Americans and the gay/lesbian populations of North Carolina, to which we ask the following: If Senator Forrester is against African-American and LGBT civil rights advancement, then what other minority group is he against?
To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we believe in a world where people should be judged on the conduct of their character rather than the color of their skin, who they fall in love with or any other defining characteristic or minority persuasion.
Senator Forrester stated that he did not intend to offend African-Americans or gays and hopes those who were hurt by the remarks will accept his apology. PFLAG, alongside of those constituents of the senator’s who were hurt or offended by his comments, would like to invite the senator to a face-to-face discussion on diversity and minority orientations.
PFLAG Gaston hopes the senator will take us up on our invitation for a dialogue where he can apologize face-to-face to those he hurt with his careless comments.
If Senator Forrester decides against a face-to-face meeting with the offended minorities of his district, then we hope he will think twice about the language he uses regarding African-Americans and the LGBT communities of North Carolina in the future.
Sincerely,
Amy Sifford and Robert Kellogg
Executive President and Vice President of PFLAG Gaston
James Forrester
Email: Jamesf@ncleg.net
District: 41
Counties Represented: Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln
NC Senate
16 W. Jones Street, Room 1129
Raleigh, NC 27601-2808
(704) 263-4716
Related:
* NC: Freeper on the homo-filled Triangle: it’s ‘SICKENING TO see DIXIE become so weak’
* NC: homophobic fact-free rant of conservative state senator’s activist wife exposed
15 Comments
Geeze yet another reason why I’m glad I left NC. Thank god that I got a job that took me out of that state.
Why start a “dialogue”?Did Martin Luther King or Ralph Abernathy start a dialogue with the Klu Klux Klan? It is long past time to stop treating these outright bigots as simply misguided souls. This guy is a piece of crap, and the energies of PFLAG would be much better spent shutting down his medical practice than “dialoguing.” There should be pickets, blockades of his office building door, widespread publicity of his racism and sexism and appeals to the local insurers to drop him from their networks.
Treat him as the pariah on society that he is. Why do we always have to be the bigger people?
Racism and homobigotryare never too far apart from one another.
(Hence the reason why that black communities should work on their homophobia and gay communities should work on their racism…)
And he’s concerned about “increased animosity” towards him if he goes to the PFLAG meeting?
If anyone in NC was thinking about sitting on their hands this year…this guy is the reason not to.
May 4, 2010 is the day for primary voting in NC.
Voter registration deadline for the primary is April 9, 2010.
Every person in NC, no matter their district or party affiliation will have the chance to vote for some office on May 4, 2010 (judicial races at least).
Check your voter registration here
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/Vo…
You won’t be able to vote against this guy on November 2, 2010, but you can help keep him from becoming a member of the majority party.
If you don’t want to see a marriage amendment pass in NC, I strongly urge you to start registering voters NOW.
The polls are now open for Dr. Forrester to win our Special Award:
The most important folks to dialogue with…are the ones on the fence.
With someone like Dr. Forrester? Weeeeellll…making an attempt at dialogue might not change his mind, but it is an opportunity to get people who would tune into such a discussion.
At such a discussion then, we as a community will just have to show ourselves up as better speakers and more worthy opponents.
In other words, we’ll squeeze his lemons, and make lemonade!
Of course start a dialogueAnd it works either way.
If these people do actually respond and attend, there is always a possibility that they could change either their minds or their voting behavior, especially if they see that their constituents demand or support such things.
If they don’t respond, or worse, respond as this clown did, then two things are on record – first that they actually oppose the rights of their constituents, and second, that the attempt for dialogue was made and rejected.
This is not always about actually changing the mind of the official. Sometimes it is about raising awareness of the official’s views among voters who might not have been aware of them.
Why do we have to be the bigger people? Because if we aren’t, it is a guarantee that we get no progress. They have little to lose unless we make it clear that they do.
Doesn’t the AMA have by-lawsthat prevent the kinds of racist things that he says?
What Lymis saidPFLAG and NAACP have nothing to lose and everything to gain by asking for a meeting with their legislator. The legislator has chosen that gain to be in the form of really, really bad publicity for him.
Old Coot / needs to whither away! really WHY would any LGBT person or black person have him as a doctor….????
Rather pointless to waste time talking with himthe man will never change. What we need to do as NC residents is to work even harder to mitigate what will likely be a bad year for gay friendly pols statewide.
Granted, most Dems in our state are anti-gay but the majority we do have see the self interest to block anti-gay measures. While most of them do that to prevent Republican advances and not because they are gay friendly is besides the point in this era. That’s the best we can do currently.
Given the energy from the rightwing we could see a very conservative sweep of the statehouse and if we lose control a marriage amendment and a whole raft of punitive anti-gay measures is guaranteed.
What a shame.A man with his level of education — and in the medical field no less — should know better. This is not ignorance, this is unadulterated racism, homophobia, and hatred. But as a mom who regularly attends PFLAG meetings, I’m glad the organization is taking on his offensive remarks. He needs to know that he is not just offending gays, blacks, and whomever else his bigoted stone-cold heart chooses to hates but also those who love them. That starts adding up to a pretty big swath of constituents — no?
Unless f*cktard Colonel Sanders is the ONLY doctor for 50 miles, why does he have any gay patients?I’d sooner take my chances, with someone who uses leeches still, than have him touch me.
he reminds me of the grandfatherly Original series Star TrekWho gathered all the children, then they got them to laugh at him, and his face melts to show his ugliness.
My foot…wants to have a dialogue with that guy’s traditional nuts.