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MICHIGAN: Voters RECALL Anti-Gay Black GOP State Rep. Paul Scott

PHOTO: Michigan Radio

How sweet it is: Anti-gay and anti-trans Black Republican State Rep. Paul Scott has been recalled by voters.

Scott was recalled by voters in a tight election on Tuesday evening. Scott lost by 232 votes and becomes "the first state lawmaker recalled since 1983", reports Michigan Radio and MLive.com.

Scott’s opponents sought to recall the second-term lawmaker for several reasons, including his votes to cut K-12 education funding, add a pension tax and his work on legislation that loosens teacher tenure protection. According to campaign finance reports, Scott out-raised the recall effort by a nearly two to one margin.

"The effort to recall Scott was financed and backed by the Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers union," adds Michigan Radio.

Scott made national headlines during his 2010 campaign for secretary of state by using "bathrooom" scare tactics and anti-transgender rhetoric. Included among Scott's four campaign priorities: "I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance."

"If you are born a male, you should be known as a male. Same as with a female, she should be known as a female," he said. When asked to explain how such a mandate from the Secretary of State would benefit Michigan, he said it was about "preventing people who are males genetically from dressing as a woman and going into female bathrooms."

When the Harvard-educated Scott made history in 2008, it had "been more than 100 years" since a black Republican was elected to the state House. "Voters in the district will elect a new lawmaker in February," adds the Michigan Messenger. "Scott will serve until then."

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A candidate for Michigan secretary of state—and one of two black Republicans elected to the Michigan House of Representatives—has caused an alarm with his campaign priorities. Included among State Rep. Paul Scott's four priorities: "I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance."

Scott (R-Grand Blanc) says "it's about values" and recycles scare tactics of men stalking little girls in public toilets:

"If you are born a male, you should be known as a male. Same as with a female, she should be known as a female,” he said. When asked to explain how such a mandate from the Secretary of State would benefit Michigan, he said it was about "preventing people who are males genetically from dressing as a woman and going into female bathrooms." While Scott is aware that federal courts have ruled that gender dysphoria, the medical diagnosis for transgender persons, was a disability, he said he did not think he would run afoul of discrimination laws.  The issue is about biological gender [and] he said his mandate would be in place even for those who had completely undergone sex reassignment surgeries. "That’s who you are. You can have cosmetic surgery or reassignment surgery but you are still that gender," he said.

While it is appears unlikely the Michigan Secretary of State could prevent transgender men or women from legally changing their identification, the conservative legislator's comments sparked an immediate outcry online and from LGBTs activists. Alicia Skillman, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit based LGBT organization, told the Michigan Messenger: "Michigan law allows for a person’s sex to be changed. The fact that anyone would launch a campaign flouting an existing law which seeks to protect Michigan residents from harm is truly disheartening."

In November 2009, Kalamazoo voters overwhelmingly rejected fear tactics around "men in dresses in women’s bathrooms" and approved a anti-discrimination ordinance.

Scott begins the second year of his first two-year-term. In November 2008, Scott made history as one of the first two black Republicans elected to Michigan House in more than 100 years.

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