Mike Gamms, the Green Party and "censorship"

"Censorship" is in scare quotes because, per First Amendment understanding, only governments can censor. Private businesses cannot.

But, it appears that, in the everyday sense of the word, is what the Green Party is doing on its official Facebook page.

Gamms was duly nominated to run for New York's 27th Congressional District. And, since then, he's been an ass. In the GP group, he's arguably been the most vicious attacker of any non-trans advocate of the several attackers in that group. There had been extensive argument about whether or not he actually was a GP candidate and thus, whether or not his picture should be on a photo-poster of candidates. The state party didn't have him listed.

Well, Erie County Greens don't have a website, but they do have a Facebook page. So I messaged.

And this was the response.

We did endorse him, but the endorsement was withdrawn after he made several posts on social media that many felt were problematic. He is still on the ballot as a Green because there is no way to remove him, but the State Party has stopped assisting/promoting his campaign.

And if you don't believe me? I screenshotted it. Not going to bother posting, but just in case, I still have it.

So, I posted at the end of the long set of comments about that photo-poster that regional and state Greens had essentially "unendorsed" Gamms.

Commenting was turned off after that.

I at the same time, in early April, posted that as the start of a new thread. Yes, national Greens might want to bury that issue, but turning off comments on the thread where I first posted means that many might not see it.

A full week later, the post, screengrabbed below, had still not been approved by moderators.

I goosed the GP's official Twitter account at that point. I don't know if that did the trick or what, but it's no longer in the "pending" cue. That said?

It might have been deleted. And I did a FB group search. And didn't find it.

This is no bueno.

Knowing WHY Gamms made his "problematic" comments connects me to why this maybe wasn't posted as a separate piece. And, I don't know if the person(s) who admin the official GP Twitter overlap with the Facebook group at all, but they've been nonresponsive on this and other things.

All of which have a big why behind them.

So, this is going to be the first in a likely series of posts.

Update, May 18: The GPUS has named Gamms to its national Dispute Resolution Committee, representing the Lavender Caucus.

Update, May 19: Gamms reportedly, in a new height of arrogance, stupidity, or both, refused to read tea leaves and tried to get elected as a delegate to the national convention by the GPNY. And failed.

Update, June 5, off a May 31 original dateline: Gamms is caught embarrassing New York State and local Greens in a George Floyd protest. From a TV station:

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The Green Party of Monroe County condemned its own candidate oveer his actions at Saturday's protest in Rochester.

The local Green Party released a statement Sunday night saying Mike Gammariello, who is running for New York's 27th Congressional District, was photographed instigating violence.

The statement says that Gammariello's actions violated directions from the protest's organizers.

The Green Party also pointed out that Gammariello is Caucasian.

The statement also mentions that the party separated from his campaign last month over comments made toward other Green Party members.

There you are.