For those outside of Virginia, the Richmond Times Dispatch is among the most conservative newspapers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hence I was surprised to see an op-ed column in that generally reactionary newspaper that directly takes Governor Bob McDonnell - and the GOP members of the House of Delegates - to task for their failure to afford employment protections to gay and lesbians state employees. The appearances of the Westboro Baptist Church hate merchants both in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area and in Richmond provide a great backdrop displaying McDonnell's and the Virginia GOP's true mindset. And for McDonnell, the conclusion is pretty clear that he's the same "Taliban Bob" who wrote his infamous thesis at Pat Robertson's law school. His campaign as a moderate was clearly a lie and one can only hope voters in other parts of the country are being educated so as to not fall for the campaigns of GOP bigots and theocrats who pretend on the campaign trail to have "evolved" from past fanaticism. The reality is that in today's GOP, there is no such thing as a moderate. Here are some column highlights:*
On the same day that the Westboro folks were visiting local sites spewing their peculiar anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-whatever message, a House of Delegates subcommittee rejected legislation that would have barred discrimination in the state work force based on sexual orientation.
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Sen. Donald McEachin's bill had won approval in the Democrat-majority Senate. But approval in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates looked bleak -- a forecast confirmed by Tuesday's 5-3 subcommittee vote tabling the bill. Gov. Bob McDonnell took no position on Senate Bill 66.
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You would think McDonnell would want to leave no question that he is a different man from the Regent University Law School student whose 1989 thesis read: "Every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators. The cost of sin should fall on the sinner not the taxpayer."
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Here was his [McDonnell's] chance to push the legislature to do the right thing. It's funny: During his campaign for governor, while wading through the fallout from his thesis, McDonnell sent a different message to Jon Blair, CEO of Equality Virginia. "It is my firm belief that government should not discriminate based on race, sex, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation," McDonnell wrote in a Sept. 15 letter. That was then, when McDonnell was burnishing a façade of genial moderation.
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On Feb. 5, McDonnell replaced Kaine's executive order against discrimination with one that removed sexual orientation. And on Tuesday, he sat on his hands. "This was the governor's opportunity to show he was not going to be the Robert McDonnell of the thesis 20 years ago, but he was going to be the Governor McDonnell who governed from the center," Blair said yesterday at Equality Virginia's Fan District headquarters.
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"The failure of the bill in the House rests at the feet of the governor," Blair said. Area residents were right in taking to the streets to counter the nasty message of Westboro Baptist. Silence in the face of hatred and bigotry is always dangerous. But the counterprotests will ring hollow if we're silent in the face of state-sanctioned bigotry.
*
Virginians who sit quietly and allow this type of bigotry are little better than the "good Germans" who turned a blind eye to Hitler's rise because at the time it did not threaten them. Bad things often happen because people sit back and allow them to occur. Hundreds turned out at the Richmond Holocaust Museum to silently protest the hate of the WBC - obviously McDonnell and the Virginia GOP failed to get the message.
On the same day that the Westboro folks were visiting local sites spewing their peculiar anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-whatever message, a House of Delegates subcommittee rejected legislation that would have barred discrimination in the state work force based on sexual orientation.
*
Sen. Donald McEachin's bill had won approval in the Democrat-majority Senate. But approval in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates looked bleak -- a forecast confirmed by Tuesday's 5-3 subcommittee vote tabling the bill. Gov. Bob McDonnell took no position on Senate Bill 66.
*
You would think McDonnell would want to leave no question that he is a different man from the Regent University Law School student whose 1989 thesis read: "Every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators. The cost of sin should fall on the sinner not the taxpayer."
*
Here was his [McDonnell's] chance to push the legislature to do the right thing. It's funny: During his campaign for governor, while wading through the fallout from his thesis, McDonnell sent a different message to Jon Blair, CEO of Equality Virginia. "It is my firm belief that government should not discriminate based on race, sex, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation," McDonnell wrote in a Sept. 15 letter. That was then, when McDonnell was burnishing a façade of genial moderation.
*
On Feb. 5, McDonnell replaced Kaine's executive order against discrimination with one that removed sexual orientation. And on Tuesday, he sat on his hands. "This was the governor's opportunity to show he was not going to be the Robert McDonnell of the thesis 20 years ago, but he was going to be the Governor McDonnell who governed from the center," Blair said yesterday at Equality Virginia's Fan District headquarters.
*
"The failure of the bill in the House rests at the feet of the governor," Blair said. Area residents were right in taking to the streets to counter the nasty message of Westboro Baptist. Silence in the face of hatred and bigotry is always dangerous. But the counterprotests will ring hollow if we're silent in the face of state-sanctioned bigotry.
*
Virginians who sit quietly and allow this type of bigotry are little better than the "good Germans" who turned a blind eye to Hitler's rise because at the time it did not threaten them. Bad things often happen because people sit back and allow them to occur. Hundreds turned out at the Richmond Holocaust Museum to silently protest the hate of the WBC - obviously McDonnell and the Virginia GOP failed to get the message.
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