Tim James, a Republican candidate for Alabama’s governor, has launched a new ad that directly harms LGBTQ youth. The subject of the ad is the Magic City Acceptance Academy, a public charter school outside of Birmingham that bills itself as an “LGBTQ affirming learning environment” and is known to be the only LGBTQ-focused learning academy in the entire Southeast.
In his ad, James claims the school is perverse and is using taxpayer money to indoctrinate children. It’s been reported by AL.com that James has since doubled down on his claims, calling the school “perverse”.
Sadly, according to CBS Birmingham, the students at Magic City Acceptance Academy have already started experiencing harassment due to the ad. Michael Wilson, the school’s principal, said that since the ad began running, they’ve already had a car drive by and scream homophobic slurs at students who were outside for PE class, and there was another instance where a woman entered campus and began following and filming students while reciting bible verses before she was stopped by school staff.
When speaking of the dangers of the ads, Wilson said the problem is that “they empower and embolden people who still have a lot of hate and bigotry in their hearts to take action sometimes.”
Luckily, in a recent poll, it’s been revealed that Tim James is unlikely to win his bid to be the Republican candidate as he’s currently only projected to receive 13.6% of the vote.
