NEWS
Oh Yes, HE DeKalb elections board nominee attacks trans official, LGBTQ people
Q
DID
By Patrick Saunders A REPUBLICAN NOMINEE TO THE DEKALB County Elections Board said LGBTQ people live a “vile” and “pathetic lifestyle” and told an elected official she would spend an “eternity in hell” for being transgender. Paul Maner made the comments in Facebook posts unearthed and provided to Project Q Atlanta. He was nominated by the DeKalb County Republican Party to fill a seat on the county elections board. His anti-LGBTQ views, among other controversial statements, sparked outrage and ultimately tanked his nomination. “He has a history of xenophobic, racist and anti-LGBTQ behavior,” said John Jackson, chair of the DeKalb County Democratic Party. “He believes in the big lie President Trump stated that the election was stolen. He is not worthy of any position that requires governing.” Maner turned his ire on Doraville City Councilmember Stephe Koontz in an undated Facebook comment. Koontz became the state’s only openly transgender elected official in 2018. “I have religious reasons to reject your chosen demented lifestyle, and I won’t cross that line,” Maner wrote to Koontz. “God comes first in my life, and I pray you repent before it’s to [sic] late. An eternity in hell won’t be worth the lifestyle you choose.” Koontz told Project Q that she “can’t think of a worse person” to appoint to the DeKalb elections board.
Paul Maner
“I think his own words and past actions speak better than anything I could say as to why,” she said.
TRIGGER WARNING
In another undated Facebook post, Maner called LGBTQ people “vile.” “Let me be clear, and specific,” he wrote. “You’re violating my religious freedoms when you use, or threaten to use force to make me accept, condone or endorse your pathetic lifestyle.” “Here’s how it works: you’re born a male, you’ll die a male. You’re born and female, you’ll die a female. There is absolutely NOTHING you or anyone else can do to change that fact,” he added. The election of Doraville’s second LGBTQ council member and first openly LGBTQ mayor appeared to trigger Maner in 2019. He posted pictures of police officers in pink uniforms and a police car with rainbows painted on it and mocked the images as “the new Doraville police cruiser and uniforms” that December. theQatl.com 11
