Watch: Pastor Calls For ‘Flaming Homosexual’ Judicial Candidate To Quit Race
A North Carolina pastor is calling for a judicial candidate who is gay to quit a Court of Appeals race, claiming he is a “flaming homosexual” who is “biased” in favor of marriage equality.
In a press conference that was shocking not only for its content but for its venue and its organizers, Pastor Johnny Hunter yesterday labeled former judge John Arrowood a “flaming homosexual,” and called for the Charlotte, North Carolina attorney to quit the race.
“I understand there’s a judge out there that’s a flaming homosexual who’s going to be running,” Pastor Hunter said. He was surrounded by the Republican House Majority Leader Paul Stam, and former Virginia Republican nominee for Lt. Governor, Bishop E.W. Jackson. The press conference was held inside the North Carolina General Assembly.
“I hope he just steps out of the race, because he is already stepping in with bias, and we know why he is running,” Hunter announced. “I’m saying he worked with [Equality North Carolina], fought against the marriage thing, bravely let everybody know, yes, he’s a homosexual, and now he is running for one of the judgeships. I say he should step down because he’s already biased.”
Arrowood is running for a seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and has done work with a statewide LGBT organization, Equality North Carolina. He had previously served on the Court after being appointed to fill an opening, making him the first gay attorney to serve on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
In perhaps an even greater attack, Pastor Hunter compared Arrowood to a Klansman.
“Why would I put a Klansman in charge of civil rights?,” Hunter queried. “Why would I put a person who fought with an organization against the marriage amendment as a judge who will be deciding cases that has an affect on it?”
WNCN News reports “Hunter’s comments came at a news conference held by Stam and ministers on what they felt were emerging threats to religious liberty. With early voting underway, they said they wanted to protect Christians from ‘growing hostility, discrimination and anti-Christian bigotry.'”
The pastors said the country is headed in the wrong direction. They covered topics such as abortion, same sex marriage and more and they hope that this year’s elections can bring change.
“This is an assault on our rights to preach the Bible as we believe it and practice religion as we always have in this county,†said Dr. Patrick Wooden, of Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh.
In 2012, Pastor Wooden infamously claimed that gay men “have to wear a diaper or a butt plug just to be able to contain their bowels†because of “what happens to the male anus.†He also has said that homosexuality would “most certainly mean the extinction of the human race.â€
Arrowood, who is 57 and has a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, spoke with WNCN to defend his reputation and record.
“I just think it’s outrageous — in today’s world — that you would say someone’s sexual orientation disqualifies them from serving as a judge,” Arrowood told WNCN in a telephone interview.
Arrowood said he had a record as a judge that showed him to be “fair, unbiased and without any agenda.”
He also said any questions about his faith were “particularly unworthy, given my personal faith.”
Matt Comer at Q Notes reports majority Leader Stam’s press conference “was held in response to legalized same-sex marriage in North Carolina. He and the pastors want new legislation protecting those who seek to use their so-called religious beliefs as justification for discriminating against same-sex couples and LGBT individuals in marriage, employment, housing and other areas.”
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Image: Screenshot via WNCN
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Related At The New Civil Rights Movement:
Watch: Homosexuality Is ‘Abomination In The Sight Of God’ Says GOP Lt. Gov. Nominee Jackson
On Our Radar – North Carolina’s Paul Stam And Amendment One
North Carolina Magistrates Are Quitting Rather Than Marry Loving Same-Sex Couples
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
