Fake Gay Group
Purportedly Makes Calls for Democratic Candidate

South Carolina residents in Lancaster and York counties are receiving automated phone calls from a fictional group identified as the Alliance for the Advancement of Gays and Lesbians, according to the Associated Press.

Democratic candidate Mandy Powers Norrell, who is running for a state senate seat, said that the phony calls began Tuesday and that they urge people to vote for her because she supports LGBT and abortion rights. The AP reports that Louise Pettus, 82, answered the phone Tuesday to hear a recorded voice asking her to "vote for Mandy Norrell because she believes in the same cause and believes in abortions, legal abortions," Pettus recalled.

Norrell told the AP that she has not referenced gay marriage or abortion rights at any time during her bid against Republican state representative Mick Mulvaney for the open senate seat. "My opponent has accused me of being for abortion and gay marriage, and I have said unequivocally I am for neither," she said.

For his part, Mulvaney rejected the calls but defended their accuracy. "I believe that the statements regarding Ms. Powers Norrell's positions are accurate. I absolutely condemn the method in which this message was conveyed," Mulvaney told the AP. (The Advocate)