Antigay Pol Who Called Gay Men 'Tinker Bells' Trounced in Midterms

In June, the vice mayor of Dixon, Calif., Ted Hickman penned an anti-LGBTQ screed in which he called for Straight Pride American Month (unironically dubbed "SPAM"). He accompanied his call for the recognition of heterosexuals by gleefully referring to gay men as "tinker bells," "fairies," and men in "skin tight short-shorts and go-go boots."

On Tuesday, Hickman lost his reelection bid by a landslide to Jim Ernest, who garnered a walloping 72 percent of the vote, according to The Sacramento Bee.

It's hardly a surprise that Hickman lost to Ernest, the city's planning commissioner, considering that following the publication of Hickman's anti-LGBTQ story in Dixon's Independent Voice newspaper, calls for him to step down proliferated. One of the more outspoken voices in the call for Hickman to resign was Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, according to the Bee.

Additionally, Equality California and a petition bearing 30,000 signatures also demanded he step down. Despite a push for a recall election, Hickman remained steadfast in his position.

"They're gonna have a recall motion? Let them do it," Hickman told the Bee this summer.

But because the November election was imminent, a recall was not implemented and the Dixon City Council said it would not pull Hickman from his position, as it could have been a violation of his First Amendment rights.

In the wake of the outrage over his original post, Hickman amped up the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on his personal website.

"If you remember last week I proclaimed the Month of July as SPAM ...(Straight Pride American Month)...(as Vice Mayor don't know if I can, but what the heck)," Hickman wrote. "Now hundreds of millions of the rest of us can celebrate our month, peaking on July 4th, as healthy, heterosexual, fairly monogamous, keep our kinky stuff to ourselves, Americans... We do it with our parades in every state and county in this country with families celebrating together."

But he wasn't done terrorizing LGBTQ people.

"We are different from them... We work, have families, (and babies we make) enjoy and love the company (and marriage) of the opposite sex and don't flaunt our differences dressing up like fairies and prancing by the thousands in a parade in nearby San Francisco to be televised all over the world," Hickman wrote.

Ernest ran against Hickman in part to push him out of office, the new vice mayor said.

"On Tuesday, the people of Dixon chose respect over bigotry, kindness over hatred and unity over division," Ernest said a statement following his win, according to the Bee. "This election shows what our community is truly about and is a huge victory we can all celebrate. I'm deeply humbled to earn your trust and look forward to serving all of you on the Dixon City Council. Now it's time to get to work to build a brighter future for all of us. Thank you, Dixon."