Charlottesville is perhaps the most liberal of Virginia's cities. Thus, it is disconcerting to see an openly gay candidate for City Council, James Halfaday, the target of threats and efforts of intimidation from the right wing homophobia types. Some say much has changed in Virginia, yet much has not. This becomes all to clear when one considers that homophobia and discrimination are still the official policies of Virginia's governor, Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, and attorney general, Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and members of the General Assembly like Bob Marshall who has proudly stated that he'd like to see gays leave the state. Of course, anti-gay bigotry isn't the only form of discrimination still rampant - racism is alive and well, although the Republican Party of Virginia general keeps its true view f black Virginians under wraps. Here are highlights from the Daily Progress:
Local gym owner James Halfaday, who says he’s the first openly gay candidate to run for Charlottesville City Council, told The Daily Progress on Thursday that he’s received numerous anti-gay messages since announcing his candidacy, including defaced campaign fliers and disparaging remarks via Facebook.
In a message dated July 31, an emailer told Halfaday: “Promoting perversion is nothing to be proud of in your campaign, and you will have to answer for what you are now doing one day. Move out of Charlottesville fagot[sic].”
Halfaday, who spoke to the Progress about the incidents in the final week of primary campaigning, said he tried to stay focused on his platform of education, finance and accountability, but the attacks hurt.
“Since day one of this campaign, I’ve tried to keep positive, keep my attention focused on the main goals of my campaign,” Halfaday said. “These were little minor speed bumps in the campaign but they hit home because they attack my lifestyle, even though my lifestyle wasn’t on my platform.”
Halfaday said he originally wanted to keep the hate mails quiet because he assumed they would die down and he didn’t want to start an “uproar” in the gay and lesbian community. He said he chose to come forward now because he’s run a successful campaign despite the negatives, adding that he’s not going to be intimidated.
“By me leading by example I think it’s OK for the community to know that if you have good, strong leadership or somebody who’s goodhearted and ultimately forgives people, it’s OK,” Halfaday said.
Nix said that, to his knowledge, Halfaday is indeed the first openly gay person to run for City Council. “This is 2011, it’s not 1970 or something like that,” Nix said. “…Sadly, we do still live in an age where some people just don’t accept that and do mean things.”
It may be 2011, but in the minds of the far right and Republican Party of Virginia, they'd prefer that it was still 1911 or perhaps even 1811.
No comments:
Post a Comment