It’s a few days old now, but still worth sharing especially if you haven’t caught it yet. The Winston-Salem Journal, not necessarily known for it stellar progressive ideologies, published a phenomenal staff editorial on N.C. Rep. Larry Brown and his use of anti-gay slurs.
The Journal’s editorial staff’s opinion is strongly stated and amazingly nuanced and sensitive:
What was he thinking? That’s the question we have to ask about remarks state Rep. Larry Brown of Kernersville made in an e-mail to several of his Republican colleagues in which he referred to gays and lesbians as “queers” and “fruitloops.” In 21st century North Carolina, a state trying to paint a progressive image as it courts companies from around the country and the world, there’s no room for slurs that should have gone out with the last century.
Brown, a former Kernersville mayor who’s running unopposed for re-election, should be ashamed. While he may still harbor stereotypes of gays as leather-clad men or women hanging out in seedy gay bars, the reality is his words have the most impact on the teenage boy or girl standing alone in the school yard, the pain of ridicule still fresh in their eyes. By your language, Mr. Brown, you give legitimacy to all those who would torment gays.
Head over to JournalNow.com to read the rest of the editorial. It really is amazing, especially for Winston-Salem. I couldn’t be more proud of my hometown right now.