Texas GOP Congressional Race Devolves Into Full-Fledged Anti-Gay Hatefest

Attack Ad Calls The New Civil Rights Movement Part of ‘Radical Gay Lobby’

A Republican congressional candidate in West Texas is airing a TV ad accusing one of his opponents of secretly being a “gay rights advocate” because he participated in military LGBT Pride runs while serving as a base Air Force commander.

Earlier this month, we told you how retired Col. Michael Bob Starr, a GOP candidate in Congressional District 19, had come under fire for participating in the runs while leading the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

RELATED: Congressional Candidate, Decorated Officer Attacked For Participating In Air Force Gay Pride Run

Oil field worker Jason Corley, one of eight candidates in the race to replace right-wing Rep. Randy Neugebauer, accused Starr — a decorated officer — of promoting “social engineering” in the military by participating in the runs sponsored by Dyess AFB’s Pride Alliance in 2014 and 2015, following the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Now, Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson — another candidate in the race — has taken the attack a step further with a TV ad alleging that Starr is somehow supported by “the radical gay lobby.”

 

“Michael Bob Starr says he’s a conservative values candidate, but Starr supported, promoted and participated in gay Pride events, wore rainbow-colored gay Pride clothing and is being called a gay-rights activist,” the ad’s narrator states. “And liberal gay rights organizations are supporting Starr, the same radical groups who want men to be able to use women’s bathrooms. Michael Bob Starr, supported by the radical gay lobby, wrong for West Texas.”

Interestingly, Robertson himself could be accused of supporting gay rights, given that he once told The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that he would be open to the possibility of an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance:

“If anybody brought that issue forward, I’d be open-minded and look at it,” Robertson said. 

The allegations in Robertson’s ad are based on articles by Breitbart Texas’ Brandon Darby, an FBI informant who somehow believes that because LGBT news outlets including this one have covered the anti-gay attacks against Starr, they are supporting him:

In another strange twist, one group, The New Civil Rights Movement (NCRM), which calls itself a “broadly cited media organization delivering news and opinion dedicated to the wide interests of the progressive and LGBT communities,” found itself defending and advocating for a candidate who, only days prior, attempted to convince his fellow West Texans that he was actually the anti-gay agenda candidate.

Although we certainly appreciate the free publicity, Darby’s premise is way off. He’s effectively arguing that any news outlet that covers a political candidate supports that candidate. In other words, by reporting on Bob Starr – or Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, or Donald Trump, or Marco Rubio – any news outlet, including NCRM, supports those candidates, which is obviously false. 

But this is not particularly surprising from Darby, reportedly a one-time radical “leftist” who infamously became an FBI informant, ratting out two of his fellow activists and sending them to prison.

RELATED: Air Force Colonel Calls GOP Primary Opponent A ‘Coward’ For Anti-Gay Attack

Besides, from a gay rights standpoint, Starr’s response to the attacks has been almost as bad as the attacks themselves, and he certainly wouldn’t merit the support of any LGBT group, let alone a radical one:

“Glen knows that I’ve never been a gay rights advocate,“ Starr responded. “I believe, and have always believed, that homosexual behavior is immoral. I do not support same-sex marriage. I believe the definition of marriage is older than the law or any government, and is defined as a holy union between a man and a woman. I already made this clear when these reports first surfaced.

“I am the only candidate with firsthand knowledge of what the liberals have done to the military with their social experimentation,” Starr stated. “Military policy should be based on one thing and one thing alone – how could we be more effective in protecting our nation and our national security interests.”

Watch Robertson’s ad here: