GOP candidate calls Parkland student 'skinhead lesbian'

GOP candidate calls Parkland student ‘skinhead lesbian’

This Feb. 19, 2018 file photo shows a makeshift memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. Parkland city’s historian Jeff Schwartz is setting a plan in motion to collect, archive and preserve the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mementos. Meanwhile, school administrators have vowed to build a memorial after the demolition of the building where the Feb. 14 attack took place. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

LEWISTON, Maine — A Republican Maine House candidate has used Twitter to attack two students who survived a shooting at a Florida high school, calling one of them a “skinhead lesbian” and the other a “bald-faced liar.”

Leslie Gibson is the only declared candidate for the 57th District and told the Sun Journal it was “not appropriate to single out the Parkland students.” But he says he stands firm in his defense of “our constitutional rights.” He says he served in the military and took an oath “to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

A Democratic organizer in Greene says, “That sort of stupidity really turns people off.” Organizer Pat Fogg says she wishes she knew someone who could jump into the race.

The newspaper says Gibson has since made his Twitter account private.

Next Up In News

Netflix looks to curb password sharing, considers ads

Aiming to predict COVID, future pandemics better, CDC opens infectious diseases forecasting center

Joliet farmers wrangle cows thrown from semitrailer after crash on Interstate 80

1 killed, 3 wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago

Obama relatives sue Milwaukee school alleging racial bias

Unmasked transit: Pritzker ends mask mandates in public transportation, airports