GOP official ridiculed for saying straight people are superior to gay people

Official previously came under fire calling teaching about homosexuality ‘filth’

North Carolina GOP official Mark Robinson giving a sermon during which he suggested homosexual people were “inferior” to straight people. (screengrab)

A GOP official is under fire after insinuating that heterosexual people are "superior" to gay people during a church sermon.

North Carolina's lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, last week questioned the "purpose" of homosexuality, according to a report in VICE News.

"If homosexuality is of God, what purpose does it serve? What does it make?" Mr Robinson asked. He further suggested that the point of humanity was to "make" something.

"What does it create? It creates nothing," he said.

Mr Robinson is expected to run for governor of the state in 2024.

He said that because straight couples can have children, it makes them "superior" to gay people.

“These people are superior, because they can do something these people can’t do,” he said. “Because that’s the way God created it to be. I’m tired of this society trying to tell me it’s not so.”

He was ridiculed on social media for his comments.

He also rejected the idea that gender was a construct, conflating presented gender and sex during his sermon. He said there "ain't but two genders: male and female. Two. There are two genders. Male and female."

“I don’t care how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up, and dress yourself up,” he continued. “You’re still either one of two things. You’re either a man or a woman. You might be a cut-up, dressed-up, drugged-up, ugly man or a woman, but you’re still a man or a woman.”

Gender, as defined by the World Health Organisation, are socially constructed characteristics exhibited by individuals that may - but not always - align with a person's biological sex. Individuals who are critical of non-binary people often conflate gender with sex in their arguments.

During his sermon, the churchgoers applauded his commentary.

Mr Robinson has criticised LGBTQ people in the past, calling it "filth”.

“There’s no reason anybody, anywhere in America should be telling children about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” he said.

His comments prompted a Democratic state senator to demand for Mr Robinson to resign. His comments were called "repugnant and offensive" by a White House deputy press secretary.

Mr Robinson refused to resign, painting the backlash as an attempt to censor him.

“This whole thing has been an attempt to once again change the argument and silence voices on the right,” he said in a Facebook post. “Well, let me tell you plainly right here and right now. I will not back down. I will not be silent. And I will not be bullied into submission. I will continue to fight for the rights of our children that is free from sexual concepts that do not belong in the classroom.”

Despite all of his rhetoric painting LGBTQ people as inferior to straight people and calling them "filth," he claimed he would defend them if he were elected to office.

“In America, you have the right to be a homosexual. And as an elected official, I have a duty to protect your constitutional rights,” he said. “And I will. But we in church right now. And we talking about church stuff.”