Lawmakers Want North Carolina Lt. Guv to Resign for Calling LGBTQ People ‘Filth’

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson faces calls for his resignation after he was captured on video attacking gay and transgender people, insisting their experiences should not be taught in schools. “I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality—any of that filth,” he said in the video, first captured by Right Wing Watch and reported by NBC News. The remarks have prompted calls from state Democratic lawmakers and equality groups for Robinson to resign. “There’s no debate here. This is open discrimination. It is completely unacceptable,” state Sen. Jeff Jackson, who is running for the U.S. Senate next year, wrote on Twitter.

Robinson’s spokesperson John Wesley Waugh told NBC News he was only referring to education in his comments. “Topics surrounding transgenderism and homosexuality should be discussed at home and not in public education,” Waugh said. “We must focus on reading, writing, and mathematics in North Carolina. Our students have struggled with these topics even before the pandemic. Our primary focus needs to be helping our students succeed, not on topics that should be discussed at home.”