Here's another tap of the sign for you.
Charlotte Pride, described on its website as "the leader in LGBTQ visibility in Charlotte and the Carolinas," recently announced that the 2023 recipient of its Harvey Milk Award would be Chad Sevearance-Turner. Turner, along with other award recipients would be honored during Charlotte's annual pride festival which is scheduled to take place later this month.
Charlotte Pride describes Turner like this:
He is a highly accomplished leader in human resources with over seventeen years of progressive experience across diverse industries ...
While I'm sure the past 17 years of his professional life have been a glowing example of community service, what Charlotte Pride failed to mention is that 23 years ago, Turner was convicted of sexually abusing a minor and sentenced to ten years in prison, of which he only served two.
He was accused by three minor boys of sexual abuse in 1998 when he was 20, all three of whom he met through his position as music director for New Harvest Church of God in Gaffney, South Carolina, according to a 2000 report from GoUpstate.com.
The three boys' accusations were tried in three separate cases.
...
Sevearance-Turner was eventually convicted in 2000 of performing a lewd act on a minor under 16 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He served just two years before being released on parole.
Turner remains on the North Carolina sex offender registry, but apparently, that doesn't disqualify you from serving as the President and CEO of the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce, which he currently does.
In 2016 he actually did step down as president of the Charlotte LGBT+ Chamber as a result of his sex offender status, but the greater Carolina LGBT+ community apparently doesn't have a problem with it.
The Daily Wire went on to report that,
As of Thursday, however, Sevearance-Turner's profile has been removed from the website page listing this year's honorees. An archived version of the page shows him listed.
Charlotte Pride did not respond to a request for comment about whether Sevearance-Turner's award will be rescinded or whether the group was aware of his child sex offender status when it decided to honor him.
Maybe next time before honoring someone for their work in the LGBT+ community, Charlotte Pride will at least do a cursory glance at the child sex offender registry.
But for all I know, that's just where they go to find their award recipients.
