Friday, June 15, 2018

GOP Senate Nominee Cory Stewart Courts Anti-Gay Exteremists

Corey Stewart with anti-gay lunatic, Eugene Delgaudio.

Since Tuesday when he won the low turn out GOP senatorial nomination in Virginia, there has been plentiful news coverage of Corey Stewart's ties with the alt-right, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Now, coverage is trickling out that Stewart has also sought the support of some of the most extreme , unhinged, and dishonest anti-gay organizations in Virginia and elsewhere. Frankly, this news should come as no surprise given the Republican Party's knowing and deliberate self-prostitution to the most extreme elements of the far "Christian Right" - I use quotation marks since these people are neither Christian nor right - especially in a state like Virginia where The Family Foundation ("TFF") - the largest hate group in Virginia - has become the king maker for the GOP. If one doesn't submit to a prostration and kiss the ring of TFF president, Victoria Cobb, it will be a death knell for one's ambitions within the Virginia GOP.  CNN looks at Stewart's  efforts to secure anti-hate group endorsements as well as the insanity of some such groups.  Here are excerpts:
[Corey Stewart] sought and received the support of an anti-LGBT group that links homosexuality to pedophilia and defends conversion therapy. Virginia's Corey Stewart, . . . filled out a "Senate Candidate Survey" for the group Public Advocate of the United States.
The survey asks eight questions about a candidate's positions on LGBT issues, including whether a candidate would "oppose all efforts to make public restrooms and changing-rooms unsafe through so-called 'Transgender Bathrooms' legislation and regulations - which have the effect of encouraging and protecting pedophiles." Another question asks if the candidate agrees that public schools should be "prevented from brainwashing elementary school children with the Homosexual Agenda - such as California's current policy speculating widely about the sexual activity of past presidents and figures?"
 Stewart answered yes to both questions. . . . [Stewart] indicated support for overturning Supreme Court rulings legalizing same-sex marriage, requiring schools to teach there are only two genders and allowing Christian business owners to refuse to participate in same-sex weddings without fear of legal reprisal.
 The surveys bear each nominee's signature. Public Advocate of the United States scores 100% any candidate who fills out the survey and answers yes to all questions. The group's founder and chief executive, Eugene Delgaudio, said in February he believes that former President Barack Obama was a "child molester" and that "adult homosexuals want to recruit and brainwash children." He is an active promoter of the far-right pizzagate conspiracy theory. In May, Delgaudio did an event with Stewart where he said he was backing his Senate campaign. Stewart said of Delgaudio, "I love this guy" and "there's nobody I respect more" than Delgaudio.

Delgaudio, in my view, belongs in a mental institution.  He is truly, that unhinged.  As noted, he supports the discredited use of fraudulent "ex-gay conversion therapy" and conflates homosexuality with pedophilia despite the repudiation of that claim by every legitimate medical and mental health association in America.  Some other facts surrounding Delgaudio are as follows:
He represented the Sterling District on the Loudoun County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors until he was defeated by Koran Saines in 2015.  On July 17, 2013, the all-Republican Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 to censure Delgaudio in response to a report issued by the special grand jury that spent five months investigating allegations of misconduct and make permanent earlier committee assignment removals. The Board also voted 6-3 to take away Delgaudio's staff aides and defund the Sterling District office.

This is who Stewart finds "remarkable" and who he says he "loves."  Sorry, but both are delusional and dangerous crackpots. 

No comments: