Two seats on the Carrollton City Council will be decided in the June 18 runoff. To create interest in the runoff, a local Muslim resident organized a candidate forum. Only one of the candidates for the Place 2 seat attended.
Bonnie Kaplan answered questions about topics ranging from civil unions to immigration, racial profiling and discrimination.
“Couples have the right to be in the kind of relationship they want,” Kaplan said, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Kaplan’s opponent, Anthony Wilder, didn’t attend the forum.
Wilder is a member of Sojourn Church, a group that has petitioned the city not to nominate Muslims or gays to city boards and commissions. During the campaign, Wilder has said he disagrees with Muslim prayers in public.
“Carrollton is a very diverse city,” Kaplan told Instant Tea. “The job of city councilman is to represent everyone, fairly and equally. I don’t know how you can separate people out and do your job.”
Wilder didn’t immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Bob McCranie, a gay Carrollton resident who served on a city board with Wilder, wrote the following to Dallas Voice: “At a previous forum on diversity run jointly by The Carrollton Project and the MCC of Great Dallas, Mr. Wilder was honest about his differences with the GLBT community and admitted that his campaign advisors had told him not to attend such forums. That they didn’t want him participating in discussions of diversity. His campaign treasurer is Paul Kramer, who has previously been very vocal about his disapproval of both the GLBT community and the Muslim community.”
In 2007, Kramer circulated a petition opposing then-Mayor Becky Miller’s appearance in Dallas’ gay Pride parade. The petition demanded that council members refrain from such appearances in the future and that the issue be put before voters if necessary.
McCranie said he later served with both Wilder and Kramer on a city board without any conflicts.
Since the forum, Wilder has reportedly been using the article from the Morning News and Kaplan’s statements about civil unions against her.
Wilder lists tea party meeting information on his website.
Note to self: Be sure to drive my favorite Carrollton resident (my mother) to the polls on Saturday, so she can vote for Ms. Kaplan. (Mom said re: Mr. Wilder: “He seems to have crazy ideas.” Go Mom.)
My sister lives in the district and had already planned on voting for Ms. Kaplan, I called her up and told her to don’t forget after I read this. She is now taking her husband and 18yo daughter as well.
Good luck Ms. Kaplan.
We do not want to see an emphasis on non-Biblical, non-Christian values promoted and esteemed in our community, no matter what the alternate association. God made our nation strong based on Judeo- Christian ethics and promises. Cultivation of alternate lifestyles for the sake of attracting money will not result in success for our community, financially, scholastically, morally or any other area. Look at what has happened as the nation has turned away from the Lord. Only the word of the Lord will prosper you, and our town. He is watching us to see who will stand up for righteousness and His ways. Mr. Wilder gets our votes, as long as he does stand for truth.
As a Christian I do not believe Wiider. He does not come between me and God.
holly , the bible is not all about anti-homosexuality. Read Leviticus and see what it says about your children diobeying you, lust for other peole if you’re married, slaves, murder, torture, war. The bible was written by ordinary men, not God , people like you will NEVER, NEVER, enter the gates of yourf so-called heaven. And seriously wilder need to see an orthodontist.