Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, GOP gubernatorial frontrunner in North Carolina, said earlier this month that transgender women should not be allowed to use female restrooms and should either “find a corner outside somewhere” or face jail time.
“We’re going to defend women in this state.”
“That means if you’re a man on Friday night, and all of a sudden Saturday you feel like a woman and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the hall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you,” says Robinson.
“I’m sorry, we’re not tearing society down because of this,” the gubernatorial candidate remarked.
This issue has long been a debacle in North Carolina. The state was the first to initiate HB2, a bathroom legislation that prohibits transgender people from using the public restroom of their choice. In 2019, a federal judge struck down this law.
Polls show that the lieutenant governor is the leading GOP contender for North Carolina governor. If he wins in the primaries, he will compete against Democratic candidate Josh Stein.
However, Robinson refused to comment if the lieutenant governor would support the revival of the bathroom bill.
The candidate also expressed views on LGBTQ-affirming churches that hoist rainbow flags inside their church, for Robinson, such a move is a “…direct spit in the face of God almighty.”
Robinson also had strong views on LGBT content shown in schools. He said, “I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth.”
The top GOP candidate for the gubernatorial election gained mixed reactions on social media.
One X user said, “If you are a trans, I would advise you to pack your bags and leave North Carolina because if you try that nonsense of using the ladies’ bathroom with your penis between your legs, I bet you going to be arrested. PERIOD.”
Fellow Republicans and opponents for the nomination used Robinson’s views to stoke fire against him.
“Mark Robinson will lose and hurt all GOP candidates if he is the nominee,” candidate Bill Graham’s spokesman Alex Baltzegar said in an email to North Carolina public radio station WUNC.
“His comments about the Holocaust being hogwash along with his demeaning comments about women will wreck GOP chances for regaining the White House and the governorship here in North Carolina.”
Meanwhile, according to State Treasurer Dale Folwell, another GOP lawmaker running for governor: “He’s history’s latest example of someone who’s trying to rise to power based on telling people who to hate,”
