Hello,

Here we see an interesting case. Sounds a lot like the Republican Party in NC doesn't understand the Constitution too well since they seem to think that born-again Christianhood is requirement for office. This poor guy has outed himself and now he'll see just who his friends really are....and who were phoneys.

Sincerely,
Caroline

GOP N.C. Judge Says He's Gay

By DENNIS PATTERSON

.c The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A Superior Court judge who lost a bid for higher office last month by fewer than 4,000 votes announced today that he is gay, making him the first openly gay Republican officeholder in state history. A state GOP official said he betrayed the party.

Judge Ray Warren, 41, last month lost a bid for the North Carolina Court of Appeals to incumbent Democrat Robert Hunter. The contest was so close that it wasn't decided until after a recount.

But Warren, who also becomes the first openly homosexual judge in state history, denied today that he delayed his announcement until after the election because of political considerations.

"Some things you can plan in a political context. Some things you can't," he said. "The time was just not right for my family."

Warren said he had only come to grips with his sexual orientation in the last two years. He told his wife in July, the couple separated in September, and they told their children, ages 8 and 6, last week.

Lee Currie, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, issued a statement saying Warren has misled people.

"Ray Warren stood before the Republican Party Executive Committee on July 25th and professed to be a born-again Christian," Currie said. "We trusted him. He has betrayed that trust."

Warren began his political career as a 27-year-old conservative Republican member of the state House of Representatives in 1985.

He was appointed to the Superior Court -- a trial-level court that until recent years was elected statewide -- in 1990, but lost an election in 1992. He was re-elected to the Superior Court during the 1994 Republican landslide and still has four years left on his current term.

Two years ago, he ran for the North Carolina Supreme Court, the state's highest court, narrowly losing to Chief Justice Burley Mitchell.

Warren said he did not know how his former conservative colleagues would react to his announcement.

"I do think my electoral future in the Republican Party is pretty cloudy," he said. "I probably couldn't win a Republican primary, and as long as Jesse Helms is the senior senator, I probably wouldn't get any federal appointments."

Warren said his political philosophy is still "neo-libertarian," but he said the GOP has been taken over by the "old Puritans."

He said he wanted to remove the threat of being "outed" by opponents or the news media, which was "like a bomb or gun over our heads."

AP-NY-12-09-98 1356EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.