Bobby Charles wants to govern Maine based on Noah’s Ark and internet conspiracies
Maine’s leading GOP candidate for governor invoked the Bible to attack trans people and repeated the false “kitty litter" in schools myth during a recent interview
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The Republican front-runner in the race to be Maine’s next governor is a man who believes he can personally talk women out having abortions, that transgender people don’t exist, that kids use kitty litter in classrooms because they think they are cats, and who believes his views are justified because of the mythological story of Noah’s Ark.
The primary elections for Maine are taking place today and Bobby Charles is currently the front-runner among Republicans according to pretty much every poll. Charles sat for an interview recently with the Christian Civic League of Maine and just went all-out on his delusions while speaking with the group’s leader Nick Adolphsen.
When it comes to abortion, for example, Charles insisted he would have an “open-door” policy as governor, where women who were considering the procedure would have the thrill of listening to him talk them out of it for 30 minutes by reminding them they were not giving birth to giraffes.
I want to leave my door wide open as governor to any young woman who is pregnant and is considering—under pressure from mothers or anyone else—is considering an abortion.
You spend half an hour with me, you will understand the incredible gift, the miracle that God has given to you. That you will understand for the first time how special you are and how important it is that you embrace this.
You know, so many people they have an abortion, they’re never able to have a child again. And that one piece of their life is missing forever. Okay? Never mind, they wrestle with the guilt of having taken a life and they struggle with this for… I mean, you know, as some will say, they just simply define life away and so pretend that they’re not guilty of it. But the reality is, it leaves a scar on the soul, okay?
And so, that having been said, one thing I will do is leave my door wide open…
…
… You either truly believe that this is a child… I say to people, just so you know, it’s not gonna be a giraffe. It’s not going to be a zebra that you bear. It’s going to be a little boy or a little girl—and it will be a boy or a girl, okay?
He had to sneak in that little bit of transphobia at the very end there...
Needless to say, the vast majority of people who have abortions don’t regret them (in fact, it’s far more damaging to their mental health to be denied one) and aren’t affected if they choose to have children later in life. The opportunity to have their pregnancy mansplained to them by a Republican governor is not a selling point to any sane person. As if they’re too dumb to realize they’re giving birth to a human.
At no point did Charles explain how this lecture would go over with a pre-teen rape victim, or a woman who knows far more than he does about her body, or anyone who doesn’t feel like the governor needs to be personally involved in her medical decisions.
Later in the interview, he went after transgender identities, falsely claiming that acknowledging their existence went against biology, citing Noah’s Ark in defense of his bigotry, and perpetuating the debunked lie that schoolchildren have kitty litter boxes in their classrooms because they identify as cats.
… Our school system has been hijacked by leftists who think—and that’s why we’re number 50 in the country—by leftists who think that teaching activism, crazy words like ”gender affirmation” and “transition”… Oh, look, go back to the medical literature. I’m not being, I’m not being—you know, they say “You’re an ideologue” or “You’re racist” or you’re this or you’re that—No, I’m being very factual.
We know the Bible has a very clear understanding. Noah didn’t take 27 genders of animals. He just took two, as far as I remember. And… that’s true. But then there’s the biology. Right now there now we’re denying genetics and biology...
…
… You know, you’ve got kids now that apparently think that they’re cats and dogs and we are accommodating that. That’s garbage. What do you do, by the way, when you get to be 20, and you break it to them, “Actually, you’re not a cat, and you will have to go to work, and, uh, we’re going to not do this kitty litter crap anymore,” right?
The only people who believe teachers are teaching “activism” or encouraging kids to be transgender are people who have no idea what happens in public schools. (This particular exchange came after Adolphsen falsely claimed public school teachers in Maine were helping children “socially transition their gender without notifying parents.” Charles said he would issue a flurry of executive orders on Day One as governor to end things like that.)
It’s hilarious that Charles’ comments about Noah’s Ark were preceded by “I’m being very factual.” If we’re talking about facts, though, Noah did not take two genders of each kind of animal on the ark. In fact, he took zero genders of animals on the ark. Because it never happened. Neither did the inevitable inbreeding that would result from having one family, and only one family, survive a global genocide, which is something else Charles believes as fact.
For a guy who thinks kids have wacky beliefs, here’s a grown-ass adult treating the Noah’s Ark myth like it’s literal history. (One critic online noted, while referring to the age of Noah, “I've never met a 900 year old person… but I've met plenty of Trans people.”)
And, of course, that right-wing talking point about how some kids think they’re “furries” and want litter boxes in the classroom is a complete lie. In instances where litter boxes are in schools, it’s for emergency purposes like in the case of a school shooting threat where students aren’t allowed to leave their classrooms.
As The Advocate points out, Charles may have felt comfortable saying all of this because he knew which audience he was speaking to:
The anti-LGBTQ+ views were being voiced to a friendly audience in Adolphsen, whose organization has lobbied state officials to apply a “Biblical approach” to government and has advocated for barring gender-affirming care for youth while allowing conversion therapy in the state.
For a man who claims to care about the facts, Charles should be aware that—to quote The Advocate—national groups like the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics “have continued to support gender-affirming care for minors.”
This is the man who is on the verge of being the Republican nominee for governor. Because a deranged religious lunatic like him is the best person that the party can find throughout the state.
It’s not just that he’s wrong about a handful of controversial but important issues. It’s that he’s offering voters a platform built entirely on misinformation and bigotry. Women who are pregnant don’t need a lecture from him. The existence of trans people isn’t a political debate; it’s just reality. And the fact that he’s repeating hoaxes that only exist on disturbing right-wing corners of the internet should be a warning that this man doesn’t know how to obtain accurate information.
You can watch the full interview here:
"Noah didn't take 37 genders of animals. He took just two..."
And in at least a couple of depictions, Noah took 2 male lions. Oops.
"Transgender people don't exist," Booby? It's your god that doesn't exist.