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."

Former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer says he will sue a Wilmington radio host for libel for forwarding an e-mail that alleges he is gay.

A longtime Republican political consultant, Fetzer is running for head of the state party.

In an e-mail to supporters today, he said that he intends to "vigorously pursue legal action" against radio host Curtis Wright, his employer, WLTT, and corporate owner Sea-Comm Media.

"The fact that I'm 54 and single does not mean that I have to put up with vicious rumors that I'm gay," he wrote in the e-mail. "The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record."

Fetzer told Dome he will file the lawsuit on Tuesday.

North Carolina's case law may present a challenge to a potential lawsuit.

In 1994, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that falsely claiming that someone was gay or bisexual was not libelous by itself.

After the jump, Fetzer's letter.

   Comments (1)