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Congressional Nominee Likened His Work to Allow Anti-LGBTQ Religious Discrimination to Helping Save Jews in the Holocaust

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North Carolina State Senator Dan Bishop, the Republican party’s nominee for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, compared his work of trying to enable anti-LGBTQ religious discrimination to the efforts of German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who worked to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Bishop is the author of North Carolina’s discriminatory “bathroom bill” known as HB2. It was designed to force transgender people to use restrooms that align with their assigned sex at birth and not their gender identity. He made his self-congratulatory remarks in a series of emails in 2017.

“In one email, Bishop referenced an Oskar Schindler quote to clarify he wants to allow as many people as possible to discriminate against LGBTQ North Carolinians,” Real Facts NC first reported.

Bishop’s emails show he was “working on what appears to be an attempt to add ‘religious exemptions’ language to HB142, the HB2 repeal bill.”

HuffPost notes “the activists with whom Bishop was communicating worried that the exemption would be too narrow.”

“Whom are we attempting to protect here?” asked Kellie Fiedorek, legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates an anti-LGBT hate group. “Just creative professionals?” 

“As Oscar Schindler said, as many as we can,” Bishop replied, comparing his wish to see the maximum number of people exempted from local anti-discrimination laws to Schindler’s professed desire to hire, and therefore save, as many endangered European Jews as possible during World War II.

Bishop has an extremely controversial record.

In 2016 Bishop likened opponents of his “bathroom bill” to the Taliban, and characterized LGBT people as a danger to freedom.

He was an investor in Gab, the social media platform seen as an alternative to Twitter that’s been called a “haven for white nationalists.”

Bishop will face Democrat Dan McCready, a former Marine, in the September 10 special election.

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‘I DON’T FEAR MAN. I FEAR GOD.’: EMAIL REVEALS HB2 HAS SOME RELIGIOUS ROOTS

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‘Can’t Erase Us’: Stonewall Pride Flag Removal Becomes National Flashpoint for Trump Admin

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February 11, 2026

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The Trump administration’s quiet removal of the iconic LGBTQ pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City over the weekend has turned into a national flashpoint, with local, state, and national elected officials denouncing the move and vowing to re-raise the flag in defiance of the administration’s edict — setting off a potential fight with the White House.

The U.S. Congressional Equality Caucus declared the removal of the flag was “erasure, plain and simple. They can take down our flag, but they’ll never stop us from fighting for equal rights for EVERY person.”

Coverage has gone national: CBS Evening News, ABC’s Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, NCRM, and many other outlets have reported it.

The New York Daily News editorial board called the removal of the flag an “insult,” and insisted that the “flag has to fly again at Stonewall, the birthplace of the movement for LGBTQ rights.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

“The removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed immediately,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement to The Advocate. “Stonewall is a landmark because it is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and symbols of that legacy belong there by both history and principle.”

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) declared, “They can take down the flag, but they can’t rewrite history, they can’t erase us from the community, and they will never stop our fight for equality.”

Tuesday night, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and about 200 locals demonstrated at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Washington Square News reported that the demonstration was co-organized by local activist groups.

Hoylman-Sigal and other elected lawmakers have vowed to re-raise the flag at an event on Thursday. In a message to NCRM, he said that those expected to attend include U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), New York State Senators Erik Bottcher and Brian Kavanaugh, and New York State Assembly Members Deborah Glick and Tony Simone.

READ MORE: ‘Toast’: Latino GOP Strategist Warns ‘Republicans Are Gonna Lose So Big in November’

 

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NYC Officials to Defy Trump Admin Over Pride Flag Removal From Stonewall National Monument

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17 hours ago

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February 10, 2026

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New York City officials plan to defy the Trump administration after the National Park Service removed the iconic LGBTQ pride flag from the historic Stonewall National Monument, following guidance from the Trump administration. Many consider the Greenwich Village landmark to be the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement, and the backlash to the removal was swift.

Some officials vowed earlier to re-raise the flag on federal property. Those who do so are “setting up a potential fight with the White House,” according to Politico.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal told Politico that he and other NYC-area officials will re-raise the flag on Thursday.

“I think it’s important that we speak out and stand up for the community, frankly, just as our forebearers, who exhibited much more courage back in 1969,” Hoylman-Sigal said.

READ MORE: White House Shuts Down Briefing After Declaring Lutnick ‘Very Important’ to Trump’s Team

“This is not a moment for our community to stand by idly as attempts to undermine our history are put forward by Trump and the federal administration,” he added, calling it “another outrage by the Trump administration directed at the LGBTQ community, whether it’s transgender youth or immigrants or queer people in general.”

It’s unknown which other officials plan to be present on Thursday.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul told The Recount, “I believe in peaceful resistance, because we’re not going to be subjugated to someone who thinks he’s a king — and you cannot diminish or undermine an important community to all of us.”

“I’ll do whatever I can,” she added, “if I have to go out there and put my own flag right back up.”

New York City Mayor Kwame Mamdani wrote, “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument. New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history. Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors—without exception.”

Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf told CBS News, “Bad news for the Trump administration: these colors don’t run.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

“The Stonewall Inn & Visitors Centers are still privately owned, their flags are still flying high, and that community is still just as queer today as it was yesterday. While their policy agenda throws the country into chaos, the Trump administration is obsessed with trying to suffocate the joy and pride that Americans have for their communities,” Wolf said.

“For over a year, they’ve been on a witch hunt, targeting rainbow crosswalks, pride flags, Black Lives Matter murals, and throwing a tantrum about a Super Bowl performance they couldn’t control. But they will fail. We will keep showing up at Stonewall, for each other, and being out and proud. There’s nothing the White House can do about that,” he added.

READ MORE: Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

 

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White House Shuts Down Briefing After Declaring Lutnick ‘Very Important’ to Trump’s Team

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20 hours ago

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February 10, 2026

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After Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told senators on Capitol Hill that he took his family for lunch to the private island owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2012, the White House insisted that he remains an important part of the administration. There is bipartisan support for Lutnick to resign from the administration.

A reporter, mentioning Lutnick’s congressional testimony, reminded Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that the family lunch occurred “after he said that he had cut ties with Epstein,” and that a DOJ document “showed that he was in contact with Epstein through 2018 over messages.”

Leavitt replied, “Secretary Lutnick remains a very important member of President Trump’s team, and the President fully supports the Secretary.”

Epstein was first convicted in 2008.

READ MORE: ‘Bullies’: Backlash as Trump Admin Pulls Pride Flag From Stonewall National Monument

Leavitt then chastised reporters for not asking questions about the White House’s recent “wins” — and then cut the press briefing short after about 20 minutes.

As The Independent reported, “rather than face follow-up questions about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s relationship with deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after documents released by the Justice Department — and Lutnick’s own sworn testimony to Congress — revealed how he lied about the extent of his ties to the late pedophile,” Leavitt “abruptly cut short a briefing with reporters.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

 

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