Here’s your next generation of Republicans, at the supposedly fine institute of higher learning, Duke University:
Duke University junior Justin Robinette claims his sexual orientation was the reason for his impeachment Wednesday as chairman of Duke’ College Republicans.
But his official impeachment article and members of the organization’ executive board said the impeachment and request for resignation was because of “conduct unbecoming of a person in a position of leadership” among other reasons.
“Comments were made directly to me and my executive board before and after the meeting concerning my sexual orientation, calling me a supporter of the faggot center, calling me ironic, calling me disgusting,” said Robinette, who is gay.
(…)
Carter Boyle, the new chairman of the chapter, said Robinette disrespected members of the board, deliberately ignored members of UNC’ College Republicans, did not attend events and used the organization’ funds for personal use.
Robinette described the reasons held against him as “petty” and said most had occurred prior to his re-election as chairman on March 16.
“There’ a defense to mostly all of them,” he said. “Those were mostly dummy reasons.”
(…)
Cliff Satell, former vice-chairman of the university’ College Republicans and president of the Duke Conservative Union, said he attended the meeting as a neutral observer. He said both sides were at fault, but he was appalled at the way the impeachment was carried out.
“There was no debate, no opportunity for rebuttal,” Satell said. “It was clear back room deal-making had been done.”
Although several members of the organization’ executive board knew Robinette was gay, executive director Samuel Tasher found out only the weekend before the meeting took place, Satell and Robinette said.
“The fact that it went from a few people knowing to a lot of people knowing was a catalyst to his impeachment,” Satell said. “If he wasn’t gay, he would still be chairman.”
Read the whole thing. I’ll be watching for a certain conservative gay blog to write a post defending the students who impeached Robinette, and then to blanch at the suggestion that they’re self-loathing.
Tik tok.
(h/t Towleroad)
School is for learning lessons. Mr. Robinette has now been educated on why there are so few LGBT Republicans.
The GOP rank and file is not about taxes, but grinding axes against minorities who want to be treated fairly and equally.
The moderates have left the party. Only the fringe and the delusional remain members of this radical entity.
Meh, he can always join the College Democrats and remain a second class citizen if he misses it so much.
Who are you? Do you even know any of the parties involved? I’m a Duke student and I have been listening to my friends on the College Republicans exec board complain about Justin for about 2 months now. He forced out my good friend Vikram when he disagreed with Justin’s stance on CR’s relationship with another political group and he has bullied and threatened the other execs, my friends included. The “backroom dealings” came as a result of the bylaws’ requirement that 50% of the attending audience approve of the impeachment as well as 2/3 of the exec board. Justin threatened to call all his buddies in many student groups in which he was involved and turn the meeting to where, and I quote “surround the hearing like Simba’s subjects did at Pride Rock.” The exec board wisely changed the bylaws to where only the 2/3 of exec approval was needed to prevent Justin from carrying this threat out. He can flaunt his homosexuality as the cause all he wants, but the truth is that he is a poor excuse for a man regardless of his sexual orientation. In fact, a site like this should be decrying his actions, as it will make it harder for individuals who ARE being discriminated against for their sexual orientation to make their case in the future. I hope for all our sakes Mr Hurst that the truth does win out.
Who are you? Some random guy who heard stuff?
in all honesty, John, you seem to be as biased as how you accuse the folks on this site of being. It doesn’t help your credibility to say that you are friends with the folks who impeached Justin
“In fact, a site like this should be decrying his actions, as it will make it harder for individuals who ARE being discriminated against for their sexual orientation to make their case in the future.”
This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day.
John Bria:
We are more than open to the possibility that you are correct. However, you badly damage your case that he wasn’t dismissed because of his sexual orientation when you say, “He can flaunt his homosexuality as the cause all he wants.” Such a statement seems to give credence to Robinette’s claims.
Flaunt his homosexuality LOL
What a change from straights flaunting their heterosexuality from movies, tv, radio, billboards, magazines, plays, music videos, on the streets…
By flaunt I mean that he’s using it as a way to distract people from seeing what really happened. (I’m not an English major so I apologize if I misused a word. My bad, guys…) Justin is running for Duke Student Government president. It would be embarrassing for him to be running for a leadership position on a Campus-wide level only to have his constituents see that he was removed from a leadership position of lesser importance and responsibility for poor conduct. Being a very clever polisci major, he cried “Bigotry” and hopes to frame this issue to where he is the innocent victim. It’s working like he and pubpol people like myself know it would.
It’s actually really sad that this happened. The CR’s were trying to be NICE to him. They said that he could resign and avoid the embarrassment of being impeached, but in his resignation letter he cited a hostile environment towards his sexual orientation as the reason. The CR’s could obviously not accept this because it would legally admit that this was the case when it was clearly not, so they had no choice to impeach him. They also did not include the embezzlement in the grievance report because they would be forced to pres charges since it’s Duke’s money and he’d be ruined. They definitely had beef with Justin, but they still were trying to be kind to the guy. The CR board is not nearly as sinister as people are saying they are.
And he only brought up the sexual orientation issue when he was found out he was being impeached. If he was truly having a problem with how CR’s were treating him before, wouldn’t he have said or done something? Why would he run for the position again if he felt discrimination?
Another unfortunate detail you may not know: this whole thing got out of control because Justin carbon copied people in emails about this internal CR dispute and he sent it to all the list servs he was apart of. Now, I think he really did wish that this would stay private. His parents were not aware that he was gay and he pleaded with the Daily Tar Heel not to run the story for 24 hours so he could tell his folks. The Tarholes went ahead and published the story anyway and forced Duke’s Chronicle to publish it too as to avoid neglecting journalistic principles. However, once he sent all those emails out he lost control of the information and this happened. I feel very bad for the guy, and for the journalistic standards at my state’s schools. It’s also unfortunate because now everyone is slandering Duke CR’s and Duke in general because this story is national now (it was in HuffPost at least) and people are making up their mind before the facts that I described emerge. Let us remember friends that Justin is the equivalent of a plaintiff in this matter, and the burden of proof is on him. If my comments are considered hearsay, then everything he said should be considered hearsay as well and be brushed aside. Also, if Duke CR is the equivalent of the defendant, they are innocent until proven guilty and people so removed from the Duke community should hold their judgment until after the judiciary hearing today.
PS I’m sorry for completely blowing up at your original post, Mr. Hurst. I saw this link on Twitter and I followed it. I’m obviously upset about my friends being demonized like this and I got feisty. I definitely came into this like it was a fight instead of having the motive of purely sharing the information that I’ve had. Though I stand by what info I’ve shared, I do apologize for being so intrusive.
No harm, no foul, John.
As an officer of the CRs at a major R1 institution in the midwest, a graduate student, and an openly gay man, I am inclined to believe John Bria on this one. Of all of the leadership of the CRs and the conservative movement in general here, there are several of us that are openly gay and it has NEVER been an issue. Furthermore, we have been welcomed when assisting on statewide and local campaigns. I realize this is not the South (and that is why I left the South), but its not 1955 anymore either. However, I will also say that anyone espousing any type of dicriminatory rhetoric would find it mighty uncomfortable in our CR chapter. We also go further in that when we are booking speakers, we tend to stay away from social conservatives and lean toward economic conservatives or libertarians.