A leading gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina said earlier this month that transgender women who need to use a public bathroom of their choosing should “find a corner outside somewhere” or else be arrested.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) has a history of transphobic, racist and antisemitic comments, leading the Charlotte Observer’s editorial board to once call him an “embarrassment.”
Robinson hammered his point on transgender rights during at least two campaign stops earlier this month.
“We’re going to defend women in this state,” he said at one, as The Washington Post was first to report.
“That means if you’re a man on Friday night, and all of a sudden Saturday you feel like a woman and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the hall, you will be arrested, or whatever we got to do to you. We’re going to protect our women,” he said.
The audience cheered for his remarks.
At another stop, Robinson made audience members laugh by saying, “If you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere.”
He added: “I’m sorry, we are not tearing society down because of this.”
Polls indicate that Robinson is the leading GOP contender for North Carolina governor; the state’s primary is scheduled for March 5. If selected, he will likely go up against Democratic candidate Josh Stein.
Robinson has served as second-in-command to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) since 2021.
On social media, Robinson has made comments questioning the reality of the Holocaust. He suggested that the film “Black Panther” was “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by a satanic marxist” in order “to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets,” using a Yiddish word for Black people. He has repeatedly denounced transgender rights, saying that people “who support this mass delusion called transgenderism” were trying “to turn God’s creation backwards.”
When asked about his controversial remarks in 2020, Robinson said he stood by them.
The North Carolina legislature has over the past several years passed bills attacking transgender rights, overriding Cooper’s vetoes.