Tom Fetzer's libel lawsuit has no merit, said Paul Knight, the general manager of a Wilmington radio station being sued by the former Raleigh mayor.

"We didn't slander or libel him," Knight said this afternoon, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Fetzer, who is campaigning to head the N.C. Republican Party, filed a libel lawsuit Monday in Wake County against Curtis Wright and Sea-Comm Inc., the company that runs 93.7 and 106, two Wilmington-area talk radio stations that Wright has a morning show on.

In the lawsuit, Fetzer claims that Wright sent an email to multiple county GOP chairs questioning the candidates for the selection next weekend of a new state party chair. The email included a copy of an anonymous letter insinuating that Fetzer is gay.

Though Fetzer doesn't mention specifically what the potentially libelous statements are in his lawsuit, he has denied he is gay.

Knight said he will have his lawyers file a motion to dismiss the suit either the end of this week or next.

Tom Fetzer filed a libel lawsuit late Monday afternoon against a Wilmington radio host who forwarded an email insinuating that Fetzer was gay.

The suit seeks damages of $10,000 or more from Curtis Wright, the host of "The Morning Beat with Curtis Wright," as well as Sea-Comm, Inc., the corporate owner of WLTT, Curtis' employer, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Wright had forwarded an email that included allegations that Fetzer is gay, though Wright is not thought to be the author of the anonymous email, according to the lawsuit.

In the suit, Fetzer accuses Wright of concocting a smear campaign to thwart his campaign to lead the state Republican Party. Curtis, Fetzer claims in the suit, has endorsed Marcus Kindley from Guilford County for the position.

The lawsuit never mentions the word gay nor does it specify the potentially libelous statements. 

Fetzer and his attorneys wrote that Curtis spread rumors that "tend to charge Mr. Fetzer with a crime of offense involving moral turpitude, to charge Mr. Fetzer with dishonesty, to disgrace and degrade Mr. Fetzer, to hold Mr. Fetzer up to public ridicule and contempt, and to cause Mr. Fetzer to be avoided and shunned."

Could a bill banning bullying against gays and lesbians lead to same-sex marriage?

Yes, according to two N.C. Roman Catholic bishops who have urged their followers in two mass emails this past week to oppose Senate Bill 526, otherwise known as the School Violence Protection Act, Yonat Shimron reports.

While the two bishops say they oppose bullying period, they cannot support a bill that singles out "gender identity and sexual orientation."

Msgr. Michael Clay, the legislative lobbyist for the Diocese of Raleigh, said three states — Iowa, California and Connecticut — have used similar anti-gay bullying laws as part of their "findings of fact," in building a case for same-sex marriage.

"It could be a precursor of actions by our legislature and/or our courts to mandate same-sex marriage," said Clay. "It's more than speculative. This is a result that happens."

Clay said both Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh and Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte believe bullying is wrong and would gladly support a bill without the offending language.

"We're urging people to support the bill and take out the differentiating language," he said.

Other groups, including the Christian Action League and the N.C. Family Policy Council, also oppose the bill, saying it would introduce special legal protections for gays and lesbians.

Update: But not all religious groups agreed with what they said was an exaggerated emphasis on same-sex marriage.

"This is not a theoretical political issue," said the Rev. Jack McKinney, co-pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. "This is about real kids suffering real pain and too many of them hurting themselves. For it to be used as a political football is a tragedy."

* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark (sort of) defends Rep. Virginia Foxx, citing 2004 report from ABC News.

* N&O music critic David Menconi notes that a New York singer has already written a song about Foxx, available for $1 donation.

* A spokesman for Foxx tells a local TV news station that she's received hate mail and death threats over the remarks in the last 24 hours. 

* In statement, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr says he is "disappointed" by Foxx's remarks, found them "to be inaccurate and insensitive."

Gay rights groups pounced on a U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx Wednesday after she called the case behind a hate crimes bill "a hoax."

Foxx's comments came on the House floor during debate over the so-called Matthew Shepard bill, named for a 21-year-old gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998. Supporters say he was the victim of a hate crime, Jim Morrill reports.

The bill would expand a federal hate crimes law to include acts motivated by sexual orientation.

"The Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed," said the Banner Elk Republican. "But we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him … but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

In a statement, Foxx later called her comments "a poor choice of words."

More after the jump.

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The largest gay rights rally in state history was organized on Facebook.

Will Elliott, a 35-year-old Durham resident, was upset about the passage of a California initiative banning gay marriage last November.

He contacted a national group planning protests about holding something in Raleigh, but when no one got back to him after a few days, he went online.

Late on a Sunday, Elliott invited about 50 friends to a Facebook Events page, then was stunned when more than 300 said they would come by mid-week.

"We kept having to call the state back to update our application" for a permit, he said.

On the day of the rally, more than 1,400 showed up despite driving rain. Elliott is now planning a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots through his Facebook group, NC against H8.

He said his group is a counterpart to the more staid Equality North Carolina.

"The civil rights movement of the '60s and '70s didn't just have the NAACP," he said.

One afternoon in February, Miranda Langston was checking her Facebook page.

She saw that another friend of hers had joined a group supporting gay rights.

Langston, a junior at Campbell University, decided that there weren't enough Facebook groups representing her point of view.

So she started "I support NC Senate Bill 272" to promote legislation that would call for a referendum on adding a same-sex marriage ban to the state constitution.

Langston e-mailed a few of her friends and encouraged them to invite their friends. Before long, the group had about 700 members.

That's about a tenth of the number who joined a group in opposition to the same bill, a difference that Langston attributes to political correctness.

"A lot of people are scared to say they oppose same-sex marriage because they have gay friends or gay family members," she said. "It's not popular to go against the norm." 

Langston has faced some criticism since starting the group.

More after the jump.

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A bill would protect state workers from being fired over their sexual orientation.

Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat, filed the bill, which would add sexual orientation to the other equal opportunity categories in state government: race, religion, color, creed, national origin, sex, age and disability.

It would also add a nondiscrimination policy for legislative personnel.

Erica Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the State Employees Association of N.C., said that it supports the bill, though it had not sought it.

"Although the nondiscrimination clauses aren't one of our top policy platform objectives, SEANC supports any bill that protects state employees and retains the most quality workers," she said.

Baldwin said, as far as she is aware, SEANC has not received any calls about workers being fired over their sexual orientation. 

How should you title a bill on a controversial subject?

One strategy: Don't mention it.

Consider the following bill titles, all of which neatly pull the trick of sounding either positive or innocuous while avoiding mentioning their raison d'être:

The Healthy Youth Act: Puts most students in comprehensive sex ed classes, with an option for abstinence-only at parents' discretion.

Personal Protection in Restaurants: Allows people with concealed weapons permits to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.

Conform State Law to Lawrence v. Texas: Gets rid of state statutes, since found unconstitutional, that prohibit gay sex.

Repeal Ban G.S. 95-99: Allows state government employees to join a union and collectively negotiate their contracts.

Defense of Marriage: Puts a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in North Carolina up for a referendum.

Note the words "guns," "homosexuality," "sex education" or "unions" don't appear in any of the above, or any other bills filed this session, for that matter.

Doug Clark says the gay marriage ban is inaccurate.

The Greensboro News-Record columnist writes today that the preamble to the bill incorrectly argues that a 2008 case in the N.C. Court of Appeals could set a legal precedent for gay marriage.

That case, Mason v. Dwinell, involved a child visitation dispute over a lesbian couple who had conceived a child using artificial insemination and signed a parenting agreement. In her decision, Judge Martha Geer wrote that the fact the couple was gay was irrelevant.

The reference to Mason v. Dwinnell in this House bill could be intended to raise alarm. I suspect it also might be someone’s attempt to target Geer, who comes up for re-election next year. Portraying her as a California-liberal kind of judge could provide an avenue for attack by an aggressive conservative challenger (even though Geer was joined in her opinion by conservative Judge Sanford Steelman).

But as Geer and family law expert Suzanne Reynolds told Clark, there's no comparison with cases that have been used as legal "building blocks" to recognize gay marriage in other states. 

"It's not apples and oranges," Geer said. "It's apples and cows."