Jack Turnwald is making history in their community: they are the first nonbinary person in Holly Springs to run for town council. However, like most trailblazers, Turnwald is often targeted because of their identity and in this case, the Wake County GOP is the instigator.
In August, the county’s Republican Party sent a letter to some Holly Springs residents attacking Turnwald, claiming the town council candidate will change the town’s policy initiatives to be “about advancing the ideologies of a small minority.”
According to the News & Observer, a representative of the Wake County GOP sent the letter as a part of an invitation for an event designed to show support for the three Republican council candidates: Brian Norman, Brian Dennis and incumbent Danielle Hewetson. From the letter:
“The town as we know and love can change drastically if Democrats gain control of our town council. Small businesses will suffer with the passing of the Non-Discrimination Ordinance. Instead of family-friendly festivals and activities, our town will have drag queen events and pride parades, and these types of events occur all throughout the year as the Democrats try to normalize sexuality and pedophilia to our children.”
The letter also stated if Democratic candidates are elected, crime will skyrocket through affordable housing developments, resulting in lower property values, and alleging the Holly Springs Police Department will “be soft on crime” if its police force is hired on the basis of “skin color and sexual orientation.”
“The implication there is that when someone who belongs to any minority group gets elected to office, they’re only going to serve people like them,” Turnwald said to the News & Observer. “That’s a really unfortunate assumption.”
Turnwald didn’t receive the letter directly, according to reporting from the N&O. It wasn’t until a colleague brought them a copy that Turnwald was able to see the hatred behind the local Republican Party’s words, saying the letter “says the quiet part out loud.”
“All of us live in a town where we share needs, and those needs should be things that we should be able to talk about, but instead, people are wanting to turn this into a culture wars issue,” Turnwald explained. “It’s not a culture wars issue for me. It’s my humanity, and I get to exist just as anyone else in the world does.”
