She had a narrative and she was sticking to it.
ABC News journalist's article is a remarkable piece of error-riddled and slanted fiction.
My formerly sleepy little town of Holly Springs is in the news again. This time on a national scale with an article at ABC News titled, Small town's culture wars spotlight North Carolina's deep electoral divide.”
There are so many factual issues with this article, that it’s hard to pick a place to start. What’s abundantly clear is the author, Alexandra Hutzler, had a culture war narrative and she was sticking to it using a combination of unsubstantiated claims, factual errors, and selective interviewing.
First - even the title gets it wrong. Holly Springs was, but no longer is, a small town. As of this past August, it has reached a population of over 50,000 people.
Second - Hutzler relies on transgender activist Jack Turnwald, a person who hasn’t lived in the town for more than a few years, to lay down her narrative that Holly Springs is some kind of bastion of discriminatory evil and that, per Turnwald’s unvetted claims, danger lurks behind every corner for Turnwald.
Third - Huntzler didn't do any vetting of her subject (Turnwald), or the claims Turnwald made. She also didn’t even include basic details providing context about other individuals cited in her article.
From what I’ve gathered locally and what the article says, she didn't interview a single elected official in the town. She instead quoted only those who supported her chosen narrative - a fabricated culture war demonization of an entire town of 50,000 people.
And Hutzler got a lot wrong. Some quick examples: The governor's 'education state of emergency' was not over the parents' bill of rights, it was after the passage of universal school choice. Also, the Sugg Farm Festival is not, nor ever has been, the political event she painted it to be.
Had I written something like this professionally, I would have been looking for a new job.
More To The Story
Let’s break this piece of fiction down a little bit with quotes from some of the sections.
Turnwald, who uses they/them pronouns, had recently moved from liberal Durham to more conservative Holly Springs to be with their wife and children. There, they became involved in a battle over a proposed ordinance to protect LGBTQ residents from discrimination -- an effort that failed.
And why did that ordinance fail? Hutzler leaves that out - Why? Because then readers would learn the Wake County Non-Discrimination Ordinance forces private businesses to adhere to and affirm "protected classes," which includes ideological topics like gender identity.
Note the above paragraph, which comes early on in the article, says Turnwald moved to Holly Springs from Durham. Later in the article, Hutzler muddies those waters, making it seem like she moved from Ohio to Holly Springs.
Turnwald then styles herself as the hero of Footloose, Ren McCormack, and Holly Springs as some kind of overly religious, authoritarian town and claims, without being challenged or fact-checked, that she has been denied services:
"I joke that it felt a little like being in 'Footloose,' like I had danced on the wrong side of the railroad tracks," Turnwald said about speaking in favor of the measure at a town council meeting, comparing themselves to the character in the 1980s movie who tries to overturn a dancing ban in a small town.
"I was told that if people in this town didn't want to provide me with a service, that I should just go to the next town over," they said.
Who told her this? Where's the proof? This is at best opinion and, at worst, hearsay.
As I mentioned earlier, here comes the paragraph where Hutzler muddies the waters:
Turnwald was raised by very conservative parents in Lima, Ohio. Now 43 and a longtime registered Democrat, they'd seen how, as the country became more polarized, the more strained their family relationship had become. And relocating to Holly Springs was like going back to their Midwestern hometown. Some things, they realized, you're just expected not to talk about.
Turnwald relocated from Durham and has lived in Holly Springs for a few years at best.
Also, a little digging sheds like on Turnwald's transgender identity as likely being relatively new.
According to public records, Turnwald taught in a public school in Durham County Public Schools for some time before leaving to work in Wake County Public Schools from fall 2021 up until around July 2022. While a teacher in both districts, Turnwald taught under the same name they are registered to vote as; “Jaclyn Turnwald.”
A former co-worker shared with me last year that students (and most staff) referred to Turnwald as “Ms. Turnwald.”
It is unclear why Turnwald left Wake Schools after only a year, but she ended up at a DEI outfit not long after. Turnwald’s profession on LinkedIn was listed as a “Humancentric DEI Consultant.”
Over the past year, Turnwald also started showing up at the state legislature as an LGBT activist for certain hearings on bills like the one barring males in female sports, as well as appearances at the Holly Springs town council meetings and orchestrating protests in the town over the Wake ordinance.
None of this information is included in Hutzler’s article.
Neither did this photo that Turnwald posted to social media of being ‘terrified’ to be living in Holly Springs.
More water muddying with this factually inaccurate section linking the governor’s “education emergency” to the Parents’ Bill of Rights:
Several conservative education policies also were implemented, including an expansion of school vouchers and passage of a parental "bill of rights" aimed at giving parents more say in their children's education. That law allows parents to access reading materials and school curriculum, limits the instruction of gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms and mandates schools notify parents before a child can change their names or pronouns.
Republican leaders hailed the law as a "win" for parents, families and students, while Gov. Cooper declared North Carolina's public education system to be in a "state of emergency."
Fact: the governor's education state of emergency was not based on the Parents' Bill of Rights. The governor issued, and continues to maintain, his false emergency over the passage of universal school choice; an expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship Program to all families in the state.
Moving on, Hutzler follows around a woman named Lynn Edmonds, of whom Hutzler leaves out a few bits of information:
Lynn Edmonds, who sits on the Wake County school board, said culture war issues are coming before the board despite it being relatively progressive. Edmonds said Moms for Liberty, a conservative group at the forefront of local battles over what children are taught in schools, will come to meetings and read aloud from books they find objectionable.
Why quote Edmonds? Why not the Wake County school board chair at the time, Lindsay Mahaffey?
This passage makes no mention that most of the books being objected to were sexually explicit and, frankly, pornographic. Why? Because this section was a chance to include a mention of a new boogeyman, Moms For Liberty, and to further the overall culture wars narrative of the article.
Also, where's the rebuttal or quote from the Wake County Moms For Liberty group? Hutzler doesn’t bother.
More unsubstantiated personal opinions from Turnwald get a subsection all its own titled, “'Terrifying' personal attacks amid policy choices.”
They said they always enjoyed working with students but felt that after they came out, their experience was questioned, and they were less respected. To be an out trans educator in today's climate, they said, was "terrifying."
When did she come out? Hutzler doesn’t follow up, but as pointed out earlier, it wasn’t while she was teaching.
Turnwald didn’t find it “terrifying” to march in a town parade - holding a sign for Edmond’s for Wake School Board sign as seen below.
Turnwald’s shirt reads in rainbow letters, “Say Gay. Protect Trans Kids. Read Banned Books. Teach All History. Show Love.”
It would also appear that Turnwald was aboard the “Pride” float in the neighboring town of Cary’s Christmas parade this year, seated right in front of an alleged member of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence", a controversial LGBT activist group that describes itself as the “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns,” but has gained notoriety for mocking Christians.
Then we come to Turnwald’s claim about the vandalization of her house:
Sitting in their home, which they said had been vandalized weeks before, Turnwald described messages they've received online. Some were attempts to poke fun at their gender. But others were more insidious, they said, like suggestions to "pluck the eyes from drag queens."
Again, as with the rest of the article, no proof is provided of the vandalization or threats. For what it’s worth, I heard about this claim, and from what a local police source has said, Turnwald’s home was not targeted; multiple homes on the same street saw some minor vandalism. It took me one phone call to find that out.
Moving on to Hutzler turning an annual festival into a political event:
The weekend before Election Day, candidates and party leaders gathered at scenic Sugg Farm in Holly Springs for the town's annual fall festival. Thousands of residents attended the lively event featuring vendors, food, rides and more.
It was one of the last major outreach opportunities for candidates before the voting started.
There, the political divide was clear.
Full stop: Fall Festival is not, nor ever has been, a political outreach event. It is what the name implies, a Fall Festival. Sure, booths and tables for pretty much anyone and anything can be set up, but it’s mainly a carnival event celebrating the town.
Hutzler then goes on to follow "Amanda Lunn," never once mentioning this woman was financially backed by the Wake County Democrats when she ran unsuccessfully for office. Instead, this is how the author described her:
Lunn, a busy mom, business owner and podcast host, spent a sunny Sunday afternoon in late October volunteering to canvas on her own the suburbs of Wake County.
The article's closing is the same as the bulk of the article, Turnwald makes more statements that are not vetted but which inadvertently underscore Turnwald's priorities for the town as LGBT issues:
Turnwald lost their town council race by a few hundred votes. But Democrat-endorsed candidates did win two of the three open seats on the five-person council.
Despite how they said the race had turned "ugly," they said they aren't done with politics. They're already working with a group to plan the first Holly Springs Pride celebration and will keep going to local meetings to speak out.
Asked if they would consider running for election office again, Turnwald didn't close the door: "We'll see what happens in the future."
"We did a lot to change the conversation here in our small town," they said.
Let’s talk about the race Turnwald lost a bit more.
Turnwald lost to another Democrat, Chris Deshazor, who did not run on social and LGBT issues platform.
Turnwald finished fourth - out of five.
And the loss was more than just "a few hundred votes." Turnwald was 729 votes behind Dehazor and 317 behind Hewetson which were elected as the two candidates receiving the most votes.
The voter turnout numbers showed 42,028 votes cast out of a possible 243,328 (17.27%).
Concerning the voter turnout count, the vote gap for Turnwald is like losing by thousands in a bigger race.
A closer look shows absentee-one stop ballots (early voting) were big for Turnwald, however, election-day voting was not.
Those who were elected include a former town manager, a current town council member, and a Democrat who ran on management and growth issues. This was not about “culture wars,” it was about voters choosing representation based on experience and the real issues of running a town with explosive population growth.
Let’s hope there is a fuller picture now than that provided by Ms. Hutzler.
Quick update: More evidence Ms. Hutzler didn’t do her homework in building her “culture wars” narrative. Independent journalist Stephen Horn pointed out a quote from Turnwald to the Raleigh News and Observer just this past September.
“All of us live in a town where we share needs, and those needs should be things that we should be able to talk about, but instead, people are wanting to turn this into a culture wars issue,” Turnwald said. “It’s not a culture wars issue for me. It’s my humanity, and I get to exist just as anyone else in the world does.”