ThinkProgress: “Virginia Republicans Nominate Rabidly Anti-LGBT Ticket”

Over at Think ProgressJosh Israel –  former president of the Virginia Partisans Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club – has a must-read piece entitled, “Virginia Republicans Nominate Rabidly Anti-LGBT Ticket.” Here are a few “highlights.”

Ken Cuccinelli

Over his seven-and-a-half years as a state senator and his four year as attorney general, Cuccinelli earned a reputation as Virginia’s Todd Akin. He opposes even the most basic legal protections for LGBT people because he believes same-sex relationships are immoral — previously explaining, “My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that.” Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case that such bans were unconstitutional, he helped defeat an effort to repeal the state law making consensual sodomy a felony. This maneuver came back to haunt him earlier this year, when prosecutors tried to make use of the law to prosecute a statutory rape case and courts rejected the case on constitutional grounds.

E.W. Jackson

He supports reinstating a ban on gay and lesbian service members, believes there is a “direction connection” between homosexuality and pedophilia, and thinks that people can be “delivered from homosexuality.” He also believes that celebrating Gay Pride Month only serves to “further balkanize us,” as sexual orientation is not something to be celebrated. He has also been active with the Family Foundation of Virginia, the Commonwealth’s leading anti-LGBT organization.

Mark Obenshain

This year, Obenshain authored Virginia’s license to discriminate law to protect the “rights” of religious and political student organizations on college campuses to reject potential members and leaders if their beliefs are contrary to the organization’s “religious or political mission.” He also backed Virginia’s law allowing adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT families. Additionally, he walked out of the Senate, rather than vote for an openly gay judge.

Now, right wingers will try to apologize for all this, claim that it’s just “liberals” “attacking” these “good men,” blah blah blah. But the facts are:

1) These are THEIR words and THEIR beliefs, nobody else’s. If right wingers are upset that people are directly quoting what their leaders said and did, perhaps they should ask their leaders why they said and did them, not shoot the messenger(s).

2) These views are bigoted, vicious, harmful, and have no place in America at any time, let alone the 21st century.

3) This stuff is a big-time political loser for Republicans, as the population moves strongly towards tolerance (at the bare minimum) and equal treatment of LGBT people under the law; and towards acceptance of full LGBT equality – marriage, adoption, serving in the military, no discrimination at work, etc, etc. at the maximum. The views of Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obenshain aren’t reflective of 21st century America, or even late 20th century America. They’re more like the gay-baiting McCarthy-ites of the 1950s. I think we can all agree that the McCarthy era is NOT something we’d ever want to go back to.