Thursday, July 18, 2013

Cuccinelli Launches Website Campaign to Retain Virginia's Sodomy Statue





GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli remains absolutely obsessed with sodomy - perhaps because as a closet case he secretly longs to engage in it himself? - and has now launched an effort to retain Virginia's "crimes against nature" via a website that dishonestly claims that a complete striking down of the law as unconstitutional as was done by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will somehow endanger children and protect sex offenders.  Like most things that comes out of Cuccinelli's mouth, the story line is simply untrue and is part and parcel with his slavish obedience to The Family Foundation which seeks to impose a Christofascist theocracy on all Virginians.  Per these extremists, only the so-called missionary position is appropriate for sexual relations and gays in particular need to be criminalized.  One of the ironies of the Fourth Circuit's ruling is that following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, it was Cuccinelli and GOP zealots like Del. Bob Marshall who refused to reform Virginia's sodomy statute out of a desire to use it as a vehicle to continue to harass gays and those they don't like.  GayRVA looks at Cuccinelli's batshitery.  Here are excerpts:


Virginia Attorney General, and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate, Ken Cuccinelli has launched a website to build support for his fight to keep VA sodomy laws on the books, and attack Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.

Cuccinelli’s fight to keep sodomy laws on Virginia’s books come 10 years after sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional. In a case from earlier this year, William MacDonald, who was accused of sodomy after having sex with two minor girls, managed to take VA’s sodomy laws the district court which ruled them unconstitutional.

In an opinion written by Judge Robert King, one of the Court of Appeals judges that heard the MacDonald case, he suggested Virginia’s General assembly should be the ones removing the Sodomy law, or re-defining it. “The anti-sodomy provision does not mention the word “minor,”” wrote King, “nor does it remotely suggest that the regulation of sexual relations between adults and children had anything to do with its enactment.”

In an earlier conversation with Lambda Legal’s Gregg Nevins, it was explained that the solution to VA’s problems is not keeping an unconstitutional law, but rather working with the state’s general assembly to develop laws that address the issues. “It’s not a ruling that VA can’t have a sodomy law, but they can’t rely on the old sodomy law which doesn’t require any of those things that might make it a legitimate law, it just says “anyone who has oral or anal sex is a felony.” That dog wont hunt,” said Nevins. “They need to give up the fight and pass a legitimate law if that’s what they want.”

Cuccinelli, after failing to get a rehearing en banc at the Court of Appeals court, appealed the overturning of VA’s Sodomy laws to the United States Supreme Court in late June.

The Atlantic also slams Cuccinelli's bizarre obsession with sodomy:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's campaign for governor isn't going great. He's behind in at least one poll. He's floating on the outskirts of the still-expanding scandal surrounding Bob McDonnell, the current governor. But Cuccinelli has a plan to combat that. He will run a campaign powered by sodomy. In opposition, of course. Cuccinelli is a Republican.

Cuccinelli, too, has been called out for accepting unreported gifts from the donor that is threatening the viability of McDonnell. His campaign, in other words, could certainly be on stronger footing.

For some voters, Cuccinelli is hoping that his tough-as-nails commitment to locking up criminals and cracking down on sex offenses will earn their votes. For other voters, voters who share his thoughts on natural law, Cuccinelli's new push is an obvious and exaggerated wink. If Cuccinelli can't actually run in 2004, when Bush won the state by eight points, he might as well pretend he is.
The Supreme Court will hopefully reject Cuccinelli's appeal without comment.  Virginia voters need to reject Cuccinelli and his fellow nutcases and homophobes on the GOP ticket in November.  Vector Press has this thought on Cuccinelli and the sodomy statute hysteria:

And then there's the precedent. Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy Jr., Ken Mehlman... Really, the Grand Old Party has so many closet cases you start to think the closet has some recursive geometry going on. And the one other thing all these closeted Republicans shared was their support for anti-gay legislation as they personally needed it to remain straight.  So, now taking bets on when the Ken Cuccinelli gay sex scandal kicks off...



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