Co-chair of NC Common Core Commission: Same sex marriage is about promoting “perverted lifestyle choice”

By: Rob Schofield - May 28, 2015 2:15 pm

In case you missed it in all of the social issues hullabaloo at the General Assembly over the past 24 hours, the good people at Equality NC have unearthed a troubling Facebook post by the co-chairperson of North Carolina’s Academic Standards Review Commission (aka the Common Core Commission).

Tammy Jobin Covil, an elected New Hanover County Board of Education member and an appointee of former House Speaker (and current U.S. Senator) Thom Tillis to the Common Core group, appears to have said the following in a post that was shared with a New Hanover Co. (NC) Republicans Facebook group:

“Yet another example of why the social issues matter in politics. Gay marriage isn’t about marriage rights at all, it’s about forcing others to accept a perverted lifestyle choice as ‘normal.’ It’s important to know where the leaders of our party stand on these issues because they have a profound impact on our society. #TheSocialIssuesMatter“

Covil’s Facebook posts (and Twitter account) are “protected” and not available to the general public, but the comment — which was quoted and re-tweeted on the Equality NC Twitter account yesterday — was presumably forwarded to Equality NC by a concerned member of the New Hanover GOP group. The Fox TV station in Wilmington has coverage of the story here.

Of course, the post would not be surprising from a person who regularly espouses hard right views on an array of issues and who features a photo of herself and GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson on her Facebook page. Carson, of course, has uttered multiple anti-gay slurs during his discouragingly-extended time in public life and politics.

One has to wonder what Senator Tillis would think about the statement of his appointee. Here is the full Equality NC tweet:

Why don’t we want #ncga to allow public officials to discriminate? This @NewHanoverCoSch member is a start. #stopSB2 pic.twitter.com/Lt43T4kxEl

— Equality NC (@equalitync) May 27, 2015

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