Christian mayoral candidate claims gay opponent will turn town into ‘a gay city’
Boyton Beach, Florida, mayoral candidates Bernard Wright (left) and Ty Penserga (right). (Facebook)
A mayoral candidate in Florida, who describes himself as a “real man”, is deeply concerned that his LGBT+ opponent is going to the municipality into a “gay city”.
Minister Bernard Wright, 69, is in a four-candidate race to become mayor of Boynton Beach, Florida, and one of his opponents is gay city commissioner Ty Penserga.
In a Facebook Live video, Wright expressed his horror at Penserga’s “big purple, pink signs”, and added: “He’s gay. He wants to make this a gay city. That’s not Boynton culture.”
He continued: “I’ll call him what I will, and I tell his gay butt this, if you’re gay, you’re gay. I’m a real man. I’m a real man.
“I’m telling you his gay butt better sit down because we are not going to let him make this city gay.”
In an almost incomprehensible rant, Wright said: “What I’m saying is, don’t make this like this is of God, and is a right of naturality to the point that hey man, you can what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, but my child can just open up a book and decide whether they want to be a boy or a girl?
“That is not it, we will not let you overtake… God. He created man! And I’m a man. And I’m gonna talk like a man. I’m gonna walk like a man. I’m gonna spit like a man. I’m gonna pee like a man… and I’ll put these fists up like a man. Pull my trigger like man, and I’m gonna be a man and do my time like a man… I’m gonna be your mayor like a man.”
Wright also commented on Penserga’s race, adding: “He’s just an Asian student, he’s a migrant here… and he’s staying with his mother. He has no life experiences at all.”
Despite Wright’s claim that his opponent has “no life experiences”, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, Penserga has a bachelors degree in chemistry and biology, and a masters in integrative biology and neuroscience.
While at college, he received awards for his “leadership, community service, and the creation of a longitudinal mentoring pipeline to uplift underprivileged teens”.
He published his first research paper at the age of 17, has worked as a high school teacher, and conducts research into “advanced imaging techniques to uncover the underlying pathology of Alzheimer’s disease”.
In his role as city commissioner for Florida’s Boyton Beach, the gay mayoral candidate has worked on “enhancing public safety through technology, promoting the construction of affordable housing, creating high-paying jobs and developing special economic clusters [and] reducing taxes.”
According to Palm Beach Post, Penserga, 33, described Wright’s comments as “bigoted, ignorant and disgusting”, and added: “They reflect someone who is not only unfit for service but is unqualified for city leadership.
“Our residents deserve a leader that will lift our communities up, not someone who constantly seeks to divide us.”
Unfortunately for the people of Boyton Beach, Wright is not even the most disturbing mayoral candidate in the running.
At the city’s general election on 8 March, Wright and Penserga will also be up against Cindy Falco-Di Corrado, an anti-mask, anti-vaccine lobbyist who last year was arrested after she entered a bagel shop without a face covering and refused to leave.
In 2017, Falco-Di Corrado volunteered as a member of the Community Redevelopment Agency, and at a meeting of the Boynton Beach City Commission she told one local resident Mathi Mulligan to speak “better English”.
Speaking to Black residents, she added: “You’re lucky we brought you over as slaves or else you’d be deported, too.”
Falco-Di Corrado was forced to resign from the agency, and is now running for mayor with the priority of “preventing local government from becoming a mini-dictatorship”.
