The man who saved Rep. Gabby Giffords‘ life isn’t a “real man” because he is gay, claims a “group” trying to recall Daniel Hernandez from his elected seat on a local Tucson, Arizona school board. In January of 2011, three-term Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a madman who killed six people and injured 13 more. Daniel Hernandez was Congresswoman Giffords’ intern and on the scene, just feet away from her that day. His actions literally saved her life.
“Put a ‘Real Man’ on the Sunnyside Board,” urges a poster attributed to an unknown “group” called Sunnyside Recall 2103. Daniel Hernandez is LGBT. We need someone who will support Sports and cares about our kids,” reads one poster. (Apparently we need someone who understands grammar and spelling in Tucson.) “We don’t need someone who hates our values” it concludes.
“We don’t need a high-flying school board member,” who “cares about only one things taking your guns away†(yes, as you can see it really says that) reads another poster.
Hernandez is being targeted because he is gay and because he supports responsible and common sense gun legislation.
There is some evidence to believe that “Sunnyside Recall 2103” is really a man named Marcos A. Castro, as he is the one who filed the recall petition (PDF).
“The story behind the recall is the kind of byzantine saga found only in local politics,” Right Wing Watch reports:
Four of the five members of the Sunnyside Unified School District, which includes parts of Tucson and surrounding areas, are now facing recall petitions – two members who faced recall for their support of an embattled schools superintendent turned around and filed recall petitions on two members, including Hernandez, who opposed the superintendent.
But the tactics being used against Hernandez are clear as day. A source in the district sends us two flyers that Hernandez’s opponents are reportedly handing out to parents dropping their children off at schools in the district. Right Wing Watch repeatedly tried to contact Marcos Castro, the manager of the effort to recall Hernandez and brother in law of school board president Louie Gonzalez, to discover whether the flyers came from his campaign, but Castro refused to take our calls.
Images via Right Wing Watch