"Your son was a homo, really?"

[Are_grits_groceries]

Commission chairwoman: Bill James should apologize
Commissioner used word in an aside to a colleague about her son during a debate about same-sex benefits.
Mecklenburg County commissioners Chair Jennifer Roberts said Wednesday that colleague Bill James should apologize for using a slur during an exchange with another board member, and said she may ask commissioners whether to take any further action.

The incident occurred Tuesday during a meeting in which a majority of commissioners agreed to offer domestic-partner benefits to county workers in same-sex relationships starting in 2011.

Toward the end of an emotional, two-hour debate on the topic, James leaned over to commissioner Vilma Leake and asked: "Your son was a homo, really?"

Leake responded: "You're going to make me hurt you. Don't do that to me. Don't talk about my son."

Leake had just finished speaking about her personal connection to the debate, including mentioning her son's 1993 death from AIDS. "To be insensitive to that is completely inappropriate," Roberts said Wednesday. "I think he does owe her an apology."

But James said he won't apologize, and said he was only asking Leake to clarify an earlier comment she made about her son's death and his lifestyle. He said he wasn't making a derogatory comment, and used a slang word used when he was growing up.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/topstories/story/1129040.html

That is just wrong on so many levels.........

[Mari333]

1. I would have wrung his neck

what a scumbag

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I woulda wrung something closer to the center of his body.

[Heidi]

3. Bill James = Bigot spitting in the face of the Christ whom he believes he follows.

Recommending.

[Jamastiene]

44. Ain't that the truth.

This guy is never ending with his bigoted comments. He once said that African Americans lived in "a moral sewer." He refused to apologize for that for a long time too.

[gratuitous]

4. Yeah, it's offensive

But what else would you expect from a troglodyte like that? He doesn't have the tools or the awareness to realize what an ignorant fool he is. Might as well drink whiskey from a bottle of wine, as the song says.

[libnnc]

5. Mr. Bill James would be without functioning gonads had that been me.

Mrs. Leake is a far, far stronger woman than I.

:nuke:

[mrbarber]

6. Contact info:

Contact Commissioner James:

704-336-2573
[e-mail]

http://billjames.org

[racaulk]

7. What an insensitive, inappropriate, knuckle dragging jackass!

I just don't have the words.

:puke:

[Angry Dragon]

8. and used a slang word used when he was growing up.

You really can not blame him.......he has not learned a thing since he was young. Perhaps some day he may grow up.

[Posteritatis]

29. I dunno, I think I can blame people who haven't learned a thing since they were young. (nt)

[Angry Dragon]

35. But one can not blame one that does not have

the mental capacity to learn how to live in society. I believe he may suffer from dead brain disease.

[noiretextatique]

9. the idiot doesn't even realize how offensive, insensitive, and inappropriate

his idiotic question was :puke: i would have slapped him across his thick skull.

[jobycom]

31. Worse, maybe he does realize.

That sounds like the dig of a bully trying to hurt someone, not an innocent comment. Hard to say.

[noiretextatique]

34. definitely not innocent...he probably feels the "pc police" are persecuting him

typical thick-skulled bigot.

[Jamastiene]

40. I live in NC.

He has been a thorn in this state for years now. This is not his first outrageously hateful comment. It's a pattern with him. So, I can attest, it was definitely not an innocent comment.

[MessiahRp]

10. I'd ask him if Jesus could save him from my fist punching his face.

My guess is no. Guess God doesn't love heteros any more than "homos" in this debate huh?

Rp

[mrbarber]

13. I heard he has kidney or liver problems.

So let's all pool our money together and send him some giant bottles of booze.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. She should have punched him in the dick...nt

[Warpy]

12. He was just being ignorant, not insulting

"Homo" is small potatoes, just easier to say than "homosexual." It could have been "fag" or "fairy" or even worse. Those are insulting.

Obviously, he just got a well needed education, that "nice" people have homosexual relatives, sometimes even their children. He learned that gays don't grow on another planet, to be transported here at adulthood to torment Christians.

If he remains ignorant, then he will deserve all the fury the world can heap upon him. If he wakes up after his lifetime spent in the bubble of the perfect Christian world in which only apostates and other subhumans produce gay family members, then he might deserve a little slack.

I lived there. I know what people there are like.

[mrbarber]

15. I'm guessing you haven't read anything he's posted before.

Try doing a little research before sprouting off ignorant BS.

Edit: "Blackie" is also easier to say than "African-American" and was a slang he used while growing up, would that have been okay with you?

[Warpy]

24. Of course not, I left that part of the country a long time ago

and I am focusing on one statement.

That one statement speaks of ignorance, as your reply does.

He might be consistently ignorant. If he resists education, then my conclusion for that also stands.

[Jamastiene]

45. Here are some more statements from him.

"Bill James - one of the ignorant faces of hate and bigotry in NC.

From: Commissioner Bill James
To: =emails deleted=
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Perversity is not diversity

You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts.

A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys?

That behavior is worthy of protection? That behavior is worthy to be taught in our schools? to our children? You are one sick "Independent, white, married-heterosexual, presbyterian" if you do."

More here:
http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2005/04/i-wasnt-kidding-when-i-said-nc.html

[mikeytherat]

19. When he wrote in a 2004 e-mail that "urban blacks live in a moral sewer,"

was he being ignorant or insulting?

mikey_the_rat

[Warpy]

22. Both

He obviously has no idea how the vast majority of urban black folks live because he's never known any except as defendants.

[Jamastiene]

46. He works with African American people on the Mecklenburg County Commision.

I can assure you they are not "defendants."

[Warpy]

48. They're also not likely to live in the urban slums he's talking about

Are they?

[Jamastiene]

41. Apparently you haven't lived here while Bill James has been making news.

Some of the things he has said about African Americans proves he has resisted education. He still holds those nasty beliefs and uses that language about them too. This is a pattern with this guy.

And yes, homo is a slur.

[KamaAina]

14. From junior high: Ask him, point blank: "Are you a homo?"

After he ineviably replies "No!", come back with "So you're not a homo sapiens?" :P

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. 'used a slang word used when he was growing up'.

to which, then, the proper response is an equally adolescent punch to the jaw.

"Hey, that's just how I learned to react to insults when I was growing up!"

[tomm2thumbs]

27. it also implied that he actually grew up, which his comment undermines

I heard lots of things when I grew up that I don't repeat - by the very fact that I am a grown up

[Turbineguy]

17. An interesting dilema.

Should somebody apologize for being an ignorant bigoted asshole?

[mrbarber]

18. There are some people I absolutely DESPISE in this world.

But if I had made a disparaging remark about their deceased child, I sure as hell would apologize.

Leave kids and family the hell out of it.

[Turbineguy]

20. That's just my point.

You are not an ignorant, bigoted asshole (I assume, after all, you're here).

[mrbarber]

23. I'm sure I would qualify as a "bigoted asshole" to many folks..

Who are on the different side of the political spectrum than I am. I've been called as much, on numerous occasions.

That being said, on many a site I've frequented I've found myself siding with people I despised when someone thought it would be "edgy" or "funny" to start bashing someones family. There's some things you just don't do, and I believe a large portion of "bigoted assholes' would agree there.

[Solomon]

21. Is it okay to say homosexual?

I don't want to offend anybody. It's hard keeping up with the preferred terminology sometimes.

What are other appropriate terms? I usually use the term "gay". Is that okay or should I get my head chopped off for saying that?

(And I'm not trying to defend the guy that said "homo") Sometimes if you don't have a lot of interaction with a certain community you get lost in the transition of terminology.

I think the worst thing the guy did other than say the word "homo" was in bringing it up in the first place, even if he used the right terminology. What the hell difference does it make whether the woman's son was homosexual or not?

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Is it ok to call you a breeder from idiot breeder stock?

It is hard to keep up with the preferred terminologies. Is it 'straight' or should I get my head chopped of for saying that?
If you are on DU, you have daily contact with GLBT people, and if you need to know something, you could simply ask. But you know that.

[libnnc]

26. thank you -- I don't have the patience anymore.

I gotta take a walk before I post something that would get me TSed.

[Iggo]

30. They're people. You call them "people." (n/t)

[Jamastiene]

42. +1

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. You have it right in the last sentence - it's none of your business,

and when in doubt keep your mouth shut.

Half the idiots in the world speak before thinking.

The other half speak after thinking.

It's best to not speak at all.

[Jamastiene]

43. Gee, if I thought you were just innocently asking,

it might be different, but the condescending sarcastic tone of your post leads me to believe you are just taking a swipe at gay people. In that case, you can be assured you'll get your head chopped off...figuratively. It might not hurt you to try a little less hostility next time you ask something like that, if you really want to know.

[ArbustoBuster]

50. Is it okay to tell you that you're a moron?

If you really meant what you said in this post, then you really do need to work on your ability to talk to your fellow humans.

If you didn't mean what you said, then you were being deliberately insulting and disgusting, and you really need to work on not letting the door hit you on the ass on your way out of DU.

[Iggo]

28. I'm assuming that Mr. James is getting a ton of emails today...

....and people are using slang they learned when they were growing up to describe how they feel about him. And he won't get offended or think people are out of line or demand an apology 'cause, you know, it's just slang people learned when they were growing up...right?

[Mopar151]

33. "Don't make me hurt you" n/t

[BreweryYardRat]

36. *wince*

Damn, I'm surprised she didn't dish out a beating.

[seeinfweggos]

37. slang, huh? that's a new one what a pos

got an e-mail address for the asshole?

[Iggo]

38. Contact

[e-mail]

You can probably use slang. I heard he doesn't think there's anything wrong with that.

[Bombero1956]

39. it was wrong and he should apologize...but he won't

By the same token Robert Downey Jr. used that very same term last night on Latenight with David Letterman. He was referring to the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. While they are fictional characters it may be an indication of how he feels about Gay people.

[LooseWilly]

47. Urge to kill rising... rising...

When words fail, Homer Simpson quotes sometimes suffice...

[ArbustoBuster]

49. Your county commissioner was an asshole, really?

What a jackass.

[1]

51. help me out here. just a question. don't jump in my shit...

"Your son was a homo, really?"

is something someone should not say. i get that.


"Your son was a homosexual, really?"

is that ok?

what is correct? gay? what?

just a question...

[Are_grits_groceries]

52. First, what is correct isn't to say such an inane

and insensitive thing. Secondly, that fool knows or should know a proper term such as gay to use. I'd bet cash money that he does know, but he chooses to stick with a slang term.

He might be given an iota of the benefit of the doubt except for his other malicious comments. He was rude and disrespectful to say the least.

Homo has always sounded to me like a deranged milk product.

[1]

53. please reread my post. its not about him. its a question. just a question...