What’s worse: someone you know doesn’t like you, or someone who was your friend and then seemingly turned their back on you?
For years Tricia Cotham served as a legislator for the Democratic Party and was an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. She ran for the North Carolina State House as a Democrat, then flip-flopped and became a Republican, which provided the state GOP a super majority that has allowed them to consistently overrule Governor Cooper’s veto power over a far right wing agenda.
When Cotham initially ran for the house seat, she penned herself as a champion of LGBTQ rights and promised to stand strongly against discriminatory legislation. After her infamous flip flop, she voted in favor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports act, a discriminatory and unnecessary piece of legislation designed to prevent transgender individuals, specifically females, from participating in women’s sporting activities.
Previously an ardent supporter of a woman’s right to reproductive choice, she also pulled another back track and voted in favor of a ban on abortion after 12 weeks.
On her original campaign website, long since erased, she wrote the following words to describe herself:
“I have been a champion of LGBTQ+ Rights throughout my public service. I was the first house member to stand up in opposition to the radical and hateful HB2 legislation, even when many saw opposing it as a political liability. We have come a long way, but there is still work to do. Right now, LGBTQ+ youth are under attack by Republican state legislatures across the country. I will stand against discriminatory legislation and work to pass more protections at the state level.”
That was nice. But this isn’t: according to a report from the Raleigh-based News and Observer, Robert Reaves, the House minority leader, credits Cotham’s party hopping with changing the face of North Carolina politics. He confirmed that seven of the overrides passed since Cotham joined the party did so without Democratic support of any kind. Among those were bills that put an end to a three-day grace period for mail-in ballots and the “Parents Bill of Rights,” also known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”
Cotham ran for office again this year in a different District and won, just barely. From where we stand, she is no longer a friend to our community. Despite her past actions and recent reelection, she does not deserve an ounce of our respect or support.
Then there’s Dan Bishop.
Bishop was a member of the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2004 to 2008. He stepped away from politics for six years before he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives for a single term, from 2015 to 2017, followed by another two year stint as a North Carolina senator representing the 39th District.
Since that time he has served two terms as a member of the US House of Representatives from North Carolina representing first the 8th District and then the 9th District.
This author first encountered Bishop in the early 2000s while offering advice to the predominantly Democratic Mecklenburg County Commission on ways to pass policy for the LGBTQ community in Mecklenburg County. Bishop was not happy about the policy approved and made no secret of his contempt for the LGBTQ+ community. As his career expanded, so did his disdain.
It was during his time as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives he authored the egregious Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2, also known as the bathroom bill) which is looked to by many as the beginning of what has evolved into a national backlash towards trans individuals and drag performers by conservatives.
Passed in March 2016 and signed into law by then Governor Pat McCrory, the bill amended state law to preempt any LGBTQ+ protection policies passed by local communities. It also forced schools and state and local government facilities to block transgender individuals from using bathrooms that corresponded with their identity.
At the time it was described as the most anti-LGBTQ legislation in the United States, although it pales in comparison to the firestorm of anti-trans legislation set off in its wake.
There is more in Bishop’s ugly history, including his role as an advocate for North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which was passed in 2012 and made North Carolina the last state to ban same-sex marriage, although it was declared unconstitutional on a federal level in the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
But that’s not all. According to an article carried by the Charlotte Observer, Bishop invested in a social media site known as Gab that welcomed white supremacists.
While Bishop claimed ignorance of that aspect of Gab, according to the Charlotte Observer, “evidence shows he knew what he was investing in.”
This year, Bishop retired as the representative for District 8 to attempt a run for the state’s attorney general office. He lost to Democratic candidate Jeff Jackson, but is still recognized as the representative for District 8.
Bishop’s history has led to high regard by Donald Trump, who, as of Tuesday, Dec. 10, officially announced Bishop would serve as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget when Trump takes office. Said Trump: “I am pleased to nominate Congressman Dan Bishop from North Carolina as the Deputy Director of Budget at the office of Management and Budget. Dan has been a tireless fighter of our MAGA movement in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees. He will implement my cost cutting and deregulatory agenda across all agencies and root out the weaponized deep state.”
Bishop’s alignment with Trump and his documented 20-year anti-LGBTQ stance paints a portrait of an intolerant politician incapable of working across party lines. He has never been our ally nor offered any known consideration for constituents that do not identify as he does: christian, conservative Caucasian, cisgender and heterosexual.
All of this history – from both Bishop and Cotham – are why they’re sharing our recognition for Worst Person of the Year.
