In Email to Colleagues, North Carolina Politician Calls Gay People "Sexual Predators"

North Carolina had some shining moments this month, at least when it came to LGBT politics. Several members of its congressional delegation in the U.S. House, and both U.S. Senators from the state, voted in favor of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual troops.

The success of that vote prompted Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts to circulate a letter to her Republican and Democratic colleagues, asking them to sign on to a bipartisan 'thank you' note to these officials, for standing up for the principle of equality.

Only one Mecklenburg Commissioner didn't want to hear it. And he was all too pleased to let his colleagues know it.

"Homosexuals are sexual predators," Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James (pictured above, all the way to the right) wrote in an email to his colleagues, which was submitted to qnotes, an LGBT publication in North Carolina. "Allowing homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military with the endorsement of the Mecklenburg County Commission ignores a host of serious problems related to maintaining U.S. military readiness and effectiveness not the least of which is the current Democrat plan to allow homosexuals (male and female) to share showers with those they are attracted to.”

That's right. Forget terrorism or IEDs. It's showering with homosexuals that will be the downfall of any military power.

If Bill James sounds familiar to you, of course, it's because this isn't the first time he's stuck his foot in his rather homophobic mouth. In 2009, James made national headlines after turning to a colleague who spoke of her son dying of AIDS, and muttering "homo." A few years before that, James again made national news by saying that people of color "live in a moral sewer."

Oh, and he's been re-elected by voters in Mecklenberg County, which encompasses the city of Charlotte, for nearly two decades. Guess nothing says welcome to Mecklenberg County than the legacy of a racist, anti-gay politician who says bombastic and offensive things without any punishment whatsoever.

But that's where the rest of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners come into play. They could choose to censure James for repeatedly using his work email (check out this screed from a few years ago, where he accused all gay people of shoving gerbils and hamsters up their rectums) to bash LGBT folks. And doing so would help convey to the rest of the country that politicians who think LGBT people are all "sexual predators" don't speak for Mecklenburg County.

Photo credit: Mecklenberg County