Alabama Republican haunted by his HS yearbook: 'Every accusation is a confession'

The son of a former Alabama governor running for his dad's old seat was blasted for his stupidity as he campaigns against LGBTQ acceptance.

AL.com political columnist Kyle Whitmire reported Republican Tim James has been campaigning against the Magic City Acceptance Academy, a charter school designed to be LGBTQ accepting.

Whitmire noted James has blasted the school in a campaign ad.

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The topic came up again during a speech to the group North Shelby County Republican Women.

“They create an affirming school with teachers and faculty who three weeks ago put on a drag show in front of the children at the school,” James said. “This is what abuse looks like.”

The columnist questioned the candidate's brainpower.

"Until now, James has struggled against a public perception that he’s not that bright," he wrote. "And last year, he made himself the target of jokes again, when he attacked lawmakers and the governor for lifting a ban on yoga in public schools, which he described as a gateway drug into Hinduism and pointed to a school permission form as evidence."

Whitmer thinks the candidate's intelligence is key to understanding his campaign.

"If you wrote a fictionalized version of Alabama politics, James is the sort of character a lazy writer might come up with. But he’s real: A lumbering former Auburn football player and son of a former governor fighting for folks to take him seriously," he wrote. "So it only seems prudent that if you’re going to crusade against kids in school laughing as their teachers hammed it up in drag … Well, you might want to look back at your own high school yearbook first. Because to attack the Magic City Acceptance Academy for doing something like what you at your own school four decades ago — well, that would be a new level of stupid."

Whitmer studied James' yearbook from Baylor School, a private all-boys school in Chattanooga.

"And on page 264 of the 1980 'Kliff Klan' (that’s the name of the Baylor yearbook) is a picture of 10 senior football players. Half in dresses and wigs. The other half in cowboy hats, boots and jeans. And that second guy from the end — in a cowboy outfit, not a dress — sure looks a lot like Tim James," he wrote.

James confirmed it is him in the photo.

"A significant convergence is happening in conservative spaces, where Q-anon Pizzagate-like conspiracy theories about political pedophiles are cross-pollinating with more moderate concerns over transgender participation in sports and medical treatments for minors. 'Groomer' has replaced 'socialist' and 'communist' as the pet pejorative, while sensible people are being seduced further into fringe beliefs," Witmer wrote. The Magic City Acceptance Academy was supposed to be a place where students could be safe away from bullies. But Tim James found them anyway."