North Carolina is back in play!

In the 13th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we’ll be discussing the political battleground of North Carolina, the nation’s ninth largest state with 16 electoral votes.

In recent weeks, as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has caught fire and generated widespread excitement, North Carolina has reemerged as a critical swing state.

A Democratic presidential candidate has not won North Carolina since 2008, when Barack Obama bested John McCain there, but in the 2020 contest, Joe Biden came within 1.4% of Donald Trump, the narrowest margin among all the red states that year.

Polls over the past several weeks have shown the Harris-Trump contest in North Carolina a virtual dead heat, and the vice president’s campaign has made clear that the state is now among its highest priorities.

Politics in North Carolina this year are also enlivened by a governor’s race, in which the Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, is facing off against Republican Mark Robinson, the current lieutenant governor — and a firebrand who makes even MAGA hats look pale red.

On repeated occasions, Robinson has used language like “filth” and “maggots” to refer to LGBTQ people, has denounced women’s reproductive rights as well as their participation and leadership in the workplace, and has denied the reality of the Holocaust, terming it “hogwash.”

Yet, as one of my guests warns, there is excitement and enthusiasm on both sides in North Carolina in the race for November.

I’m joined today by Eliazar Posada, the executive director of Equality North Carolina, that state’s LGBTQ civil right rights organization.

And I also speak to Marques Thompson, the organizing director at Democracy North Carolina, a group that works to build power among disenfranchised communities across the state — by strengthening democratic structures and the confidence that people have that the political process can work for them.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

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(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)