Will This Hate-Filled Man Be North Carolina’s Next Governor?
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, known best for his anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, is the Republican nominee for governor this year.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson emerged victorious in the Republican gubernatorial primary, putting the vehement opponent of LGBTQ rights one step closer to the governor’s mansion.
If Robinson is victorious in November, his election will likely open the floodgates to a host of additional anti-LGBTQ legislation and executive actions that could make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis look reasonable by comparison.
One of the loudest detractors of the LGBTQ community, Robinson pushed for and encouraged the Republican-dominated General Assembly to pass three anti-LGBTQ bills last year.
These include a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a ban on transgender athletes in female-designated sports, and a bill requiring schools to “out” transgender, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming students to their parents.
The bills were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, with Republican lawmakers later overriding the vetoes to pass the transgender restrictions into law.
Robinson has routinely vilified members of the LGBTQ community, suggesting as recently as last month that transgender women should be arrested for using multi-user bathrooms or changing facilities that align with their gender identity.
Criticizing those who complain about North Carolina’s restrictions on restroom use, Robinson said the state would not accommodate people who do not want to use spaces that align with their assigned sex at birth, saying such people should instead “find a corner outside somewhere to go.”
Robinson has become known for his anti-gay diatribes and outspoken opposition to LGBTQ visibility and civil rights, calling LGBTQ people “filth,” comparing them to “maggots” and “cow dung,” claiming they’re turning the United States into a “hellhole,” and claiming that God “formed” him to fight LGBTQ visibility in society.
Since launching his campaign for governor, he has focused intently on culture-war issues, including transgender rights, making inflammatory comments in an effort to rally social conservatives around his campaign.
Those comments include accusing teachers of “trying to push homosexuality and transgenderism” in schools, and claiming that homosexuality is not only unnatural but serves no purpose and creates “nothing,” pointing to same-sex couples’ inability to procreate.
Robinson often declares that support for LGBTQ rights is incompatible with being Christian. In March 2023, he established himself as a crusader against LGBTQ rights, declaring that God had created him to lead such a fight. He also criticized LGBTQ-affirming churches, saying, “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.”
He rejects the idea that a person’s gender identity can differ from their assigned sex at birth, saying that transgender people will never truly be able to be the sex they desire to live as, no matter “how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up and dress yourself up.”
Other anti-LGBTQ comments he’s made include comparing drag queens to child molesters, claiming that identifying as gay is a step before pedophilia, and wrote on Facebook, in response to the Pulse nightclub massacre, that while he would “pray for the souls of all those killed,” he would not celebrate “gay Pride” or LGBTQ identity, declaring homosexuality an “abominable sin.”
Robinson’s detractors warn that, if elected, his homophobic and incendiary commentary — including criticisms of feminists and women, Islamophobic rants, and anti-Semitic rhetoric — will only further damage the state’s reputation, as well as wreak havoc on vulnerable communities.
“Mark Robinson’s ascension to the Republican nomination for Governor in our state is a disturbing signal of how extreme the GOP establishment has become in North Carolina,” Allison Scott, the director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, said in a statement. “All fair-minded North Carolinians must come together in the months ahead and show that there is no place for Mark Robinson’s hateful, divisive rhetoric and policy stances in our state.”
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