Two candidates in the Burlington Ward 3 City Council race are calling on Republican Christopher-Aaron Felker to drop out of the race after his past transphobic tweets were brought to light.
Joe Magee, who received the Progressive endorsement for the Ward 3 special election last week, called for Felker to drop out of the race Wednesday afternoon in a tweet.
“The Burlington GOP has nominated a candidate who has a well-documented history of vile transphobic comments on social media,” he wrote.
“I call on Christopher-Aaron Felker to drop out of this race,” Magee added. “His hateful comments have no place in Burlington, or on the city council.”
In a Facebook post published earlier today, independent candidate Owen Milne denounced Felker’s comments and confirmed to VTDigger that he is backing Magee’s call for Felker to drop out of the race.
“We must band together, across all parties, to rally together and make sure individuals who embrace these ideologies do not ascend to leadership roles within the city,” Milne wrote in the post.
Felker’s campaign manager Bradford Broyles told VTDigger in an email that “Chris is in the race to stay.”
“Felker’s platform of infrastructure enhancement & funding the [Burlington Police Department] resonates with Burlingtonians, that’s the real reason Magee & Co want him out of the race,” Broyles wrote. “Chris looks forward to taking his unifying message to Ward 3 voters everyday from now till Aug 17.”
He did not respond to a follow-up question from VTDigger about whether Felker stands by his tweets.
After Felker launched his campaign at an event in Battery Park on Tuesday, VTDigger and Seven Days reported on Felker’s previously deleted Twitter account sharing transphobic sentiments.
Seven Days reported that in May 2018, Felker tweeted, “There is absolutely no such thing as a transgender gay man. Zero gay men have a vagina. That’s not a gay man- regardless of what they call themselves.”
The alt-weekly reported that in December 2019, he also tweeted, “A female is biologically incapable of becoming a man. These people are colonizers. #sexnotgender.”
VTDigger surfaced retweets Felker had made of other people’s comments.
When asked by VTDigger about the retweets on Tuesday, Felker, who is gay, said his beliefs are informed by his Catholic religion, which he said dictates that “none of us are born in the wrong bodies.” He also said that he believes in women-only spaces, a concept embraced by trans-exclusionary radical feminism.
As someone who identifies as queer, Magee said Felker’s past comments were personal for him. He said he thinks it’s “abhorrent” that the Burlington GOP would support a person with Felker’s views for public office.
“The fact of the matter is, you know, at a time when trans people are facing hate and discrimination across the country, those sorts of comments have no place in a campaign or public dialogue,” he said.
“Quite frankly,” he said, “trans rights aren’t up for discussion.”
Magee’s call that Felker drop out of the race was quote-tweeted by Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, Vermont’s first openly transgender state representative. She thanked Magee.
“The harm that this candidate causes within our communities is intolerable and inexcusable for someone hoping to serve in public office,” Small said. “It’s time for Burlington leaders to clearly say that transphobia is not welcome in your city.”
Milne said he supports Magee’s call for Felker to drop out of the race because he’s concerned that Felker’s transphobic rhetoric will spread through his platform as a City Council candidate.
“Politics in Burlington should not be used as a platform for spreading ideologies that marginalize people within the community,” Milne said.
Correction: The spelling of Broyles’ last name has been corrected.
