With all news coverage of the anti-gay agenda of Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, one could well get the impression that the majority of Virginians are raving, Bible thumping homophobes. Yet yesterday the boyfriend and I experienced the exact opposite when we attending the wedding of one of his clients. The wedding ceremony was held at St. John's Episcopal Church (at left) in downtown Hampton and the reception followed at the James River Country Club in Newport News overlooking the six mile wide James River. As one of two gay couples that were invited (that I know of), the fact that we were a same sex couple was a non-issue and a number of guests were interested in the Michael Moore case and were shocked that someone could be fired for being gay by a state supported museum. It is a phenomenon that I have experienced in a number of higher level social status gathering in this region, although the level of acceptance would likely be lower in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake which continue to be bastions of GOP backwardness.*
As I have related before, the extent to which individuals believe in biblical literalism - and therefore, their negative view of same sex couples - directly corresponds with level of education and denominations with generally well educated members such as the Episcopal Church tend to be the least homophobic. Conversely, the Bible thumper denominations are the least educated and most homophobic generally. The chart below shows this inverse correlation between high levels of education and belief that the Bible is inerrant and to be read as literal fact.
At the risk of being branded a snob - or even a bigot - the facts speak volumes and also explain why the wing nuts gravitate to the Christianist controlled Republican Party. As for McDonnell and Kookinelli, their puppet masters are The Family Foundation, Pat Robertson and the loons at Liberty University, so it's no surprise that they have aligned themselves with the forces of ignorance and the past in Virginia.
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