The Human Rights Campaign called out Donald Bolduc, the Republican former US Army officer vying for Jeanne Shaheen’s seat in the US Senate, for making a homophobic slur in a recent ad. The slur called into attention further positions Bolduc holds against LGBTQ people.
According to the HRC, Bolduc rejects the basic argument for antidiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the workplace and in health care, and does not support marriage equality.
“A campaign run on hate has no place in New Hampshire or anywhere in this country,” Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Wyatt Ronan told Manchester, NH–based WMUR-TV 9. “History shows that New Hampshire is won by supporting and advancing the rights and protections of LGBTQ Granite Staters, not demeaning them.”
According to WMUR:
In the 15-second ad airing on cable television, Bolduc looks in to the camera and says, “I didn’t spend my life defending this country to let a bunch of liberal, socialist pansies squander it away. I’m Don Bolduc, I approve this message and I’m asking for your vote.”
“Donald Bolduc’s use of a homophobic slur in his campaign ad is shameful and dangerous,” said [Ronan]. …
“Bolduc’s attacks on the LGBTQ+ community might help him in his Republican primary against Corky Messner, who has called the fight for transgender rights ‘horrific,’ but it’s wrong for New Hampshire. That’s why voters will reject them in the fall and re-elect Jeanne Shaheen, who has always fought to make a difference for the LGBTQ community.”
The HRC released a video of Bolduc saying that he does not believe the 1964 Civil Rights Act applied to LGBTQ+ Americans [the basis of antidiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the workplace and for health care] and that he is “a believer in traditional marriage.”
It released a video of Messner saying at an event, “What’s happening with the transgenders, what they’re teaching kids in school and what’s happening there is horrific.”
But during a WMUR Facebook Live in mid-July, Messner said, “I feel like transgenders in the military is OK. As long as there’s no distraction from the mission of the military, it’s OK.”
Senator Shaheen, also a former New Hampshire governor, currently leads both Bolduc and Messner by a wide margin in the polls. Before taking on the incumbent senator in the general election, both GOP contenders face each other in the Sept. 8 state primary.
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