Public Calls for Forrester Resignation After Anti-LGBT Amendment Sponsor Falsifies Medical Credentials
9/29/2011 – An outraged public called today for the resignation of Gaston County state Sen. James Forrester (R), the lead sponsor of the anti-LGBT constitutional amendment, after it was revealed that he had falsified his medical credentials.
News of the falsified credentials prompted a flurry of online commentators to call for Forrester to step down from his N.C. Senate seat, including Chapel Hill Mayor, Mark Kleinschmidt. In sharing Qnotes’ account of the incident, the openly-gay Mayor Kleinshmidt tweeted that Forrester should simply: “RESIGN NOW.”
“Sen. Forrester’s falsification of his credentials is indicative of the very anti-LGBT falsehoods he’s made it his job to circulate for almost a decade,” Mayor Kleinschmidt told Equality NC. “Given the egregiousness of his most recent claims about gay and lesbian people paired with the latest findings that he misrepresented his own biography, I’d say it’s clear he’s unfit for the job he was actually elected for: to represent North Carolinians with honesty, dignity and respect.”
The news broke this morning in an open letter to Sen. Forrester posted at Pam’s House Blend, where contributor Scott Rose detailed misrepresentations in the lawmaker’s online bio claiming he is a “Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine” (ACPM). The ACPM told Rose that Forrester is not, in fact, a Fellow (their highest level of distinction), nor even a member of the organization, prompting Association officials to speak out and seek action.
“The quick answer to your questions is that Dr. Forrester is not, and never has been, a member of ACPM (much less a Fellow, which is our highest designation of membership),” wrote Michael A. Barry, executive director of the organization. “However, this is troubling to us, too, that he’s apparently claiming to be a Fellow of ACPM, and we would like to know where Dr. Forrester is making these proclamations so that we can approach him and demand that he cease falsely using ACPM credentials in his campaign or wherever else he’s using it. If you can point us to some places where he’s using those credentials, we’d be most appreciative.”
According to Qnotes, Rose pointed ACPM in the direction of a Gaston County Republican Party web page containing Forrester’s bio in which the supposed credential was listed. Click here to see a screenshot of the page. The bio page is still available online and still includes the false information. The false information also appears on Forrester’s campaign website (screenshot).
Sen. Forrester’s latest false representation caps a week full of controversy surrounding the anti-LGBT amendment sponsor. On September 27, the anti-LGBT amendment sponsor appeared on Sirius/XM’s “Michelangelo Signorile Show,” where he repeatedly refused to answer questions about recent claims made at a town hall in Gaston County during which the trained medical doctor asserted–among other falsehoods–that gays and lesbians had shorter lifespans.
“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Sen. Forrester would misrepresent his medical qualifications as he and other sponsors of this harmful amendment have so consistently misrepresented the harms it represents for our state,” said Alex Miller, interim executive director of Equality North Carolina. “The truth of the matter is that every major public health organization in this country, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, strongly oppose amendments like this because of the harms they pose to individuals, families and children, regardless of sexual orientation.”
Forrester and his wife Mary Francis, the associate state director of the North Carolina chapter of Concerned Women for America (CWA)—a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of a “dozen major groups [that] help drive the religious right’s anti-gay crusade”—have been steadfast proponents of anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina.
This strategy of avoiding the truth was also exposed in a recent CWA post in which Mary Frances Forrester warned ultra-conservative amendment supporters of certain language to avoid “at all costs.” This language included using the phrase, “ban same-sex marriage,” despite the fact that banning same-sex marriage is precisely what the anti-LGBT amendment would do, in addition to also banning civil unions and domestic partnerships. Mrs. Forrester wrote, “(Saying ‘ban same-sex marriage’) causes us to lose about ten percentage points in polls. Don’t use it. Say we’re against ‘redefining marriage’ or in favor of ‘marriage as the union of husband and wife’ NEVER ‘banning same-sex marriage.’”
For the past eight years, Sen. Forrester has led the charge for an anti-LGBT constitutional amendment that would ban marriage, prohibit civil unions and strip domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. The measure’s placement on the May 2012 ballot was approved by the Republican-controlled legislature on Sept. 13.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ANTI-LGBT AMENDMENT.
GASTONIA, N.C. — Anti-gay state Sen. James Forrester (R-Gaston) passed away at Gaston Memorial Hospital on Monday. The 11-term state senator and retired Air Force brigadier general was 74.
