Anti-LGBT Bigotry is Alive and Well in the Virginia GOP

The Republican Party of Virginia seems incapable of learning new tricks and continues to cling to the delusion that choosing ultra-far right candidates is the ticket to winning in the general election despite over a decade of objective evidence to the contrary.  This year the Virginia GOP will use a convention format (which favors party extremists) to select statewide candidates so as to minimize the chances of sane candidates being selected via a primary. In the GOP lieutenant governor race we are seeing some in the Virginia GOP's favorite tactic: using LGBT Virginians as a bogeyman and attacking anyone who believes in even a shred of LGBT equality.  The current target is GOP Del. Glenn R. Davis Jr. (pictured at left) whose cardinal sin is that he voted repealing the state’s now-defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that was ruled unconstitutional in 2014. The goal, of course, is to mobilize the most rabid and unhinged elements of the GOP base against Davis in favor of a more insane and - in all likelihood, unelectable - candidate for the slot on the GOP ticket.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at this latest round of gay-baiting.  Here are highlights:

What was a sleepy Republican nomination contest for Virginia lieutenant governor took a bizarre turn this week after a mailer sent out by former delegate Timothy D. Hugo showed Del. Glenn R. Davis Jr. wearing a rainbow-striped shirt, highlighting several causes Hugo argued were not Republican — including protecting members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination.

On Wednesday, an anonymous cellphone text sent to delegates in the party’s May 8 convention used the same photograph of Davis (Virginia Beach) and accused him of being “a gay Democrat.” The text also called Hugo “the only conservative running for Lt Governor.”

Hugo’s campaign manager, Dustin Rhodes, defended Hugo’s authorized mailer, which landed in mailboxes this week, as a portrayal of Davis’s “liberal voting record” and said arguments about the content were an attempt to distract convention delegates.

The text focused on Davis’s support for repealing the state’s now-defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which has been illegal in the state since 2014. “Help Glenn come out of the closet by not ranking him on May 8th,” the cellphone message read. “Tim Hugo is the only conservative running for Lt Governor.”

Davis and Hugo are the two best-financed candidates in a field of six GOP contenders for the lieutenant governor’s seat.

Davis (Virginia Beach) said the message “exceeds the bar of defamation of character.” But, he said, the tactic nonetheless shows that an anti-LGBTQ message can still sway voters in some conservative, more religious parts of Virginia. “It’s probably a small minority,” said Davis, who has been married to his wife, Chelle, for 16 years.

Other Republicans condemned the anonymous text, calling it an example of a divisive style of politics that has hurt the state GOP during elections as Virginia has become increasingly blue.

The issue of LGBTQ rights has been a subject of debate within the Virginia Republican Party for several years, contributing to former congressman Denver Riggleman’s failure last year to win his party’s nomination for a second term after he presided over a same-sex wedding.

The issue also surfaced this year in the Republican nomination race for governor.

In February, conservative businessman Pete Snyder tweeted that he was “humbled” and “blessed” to receive an endorsement from E.W. Jackson, the party’s 2013 nominee for lieutenant governor and a Chesapeake minister known for calling the LGBTQ community “very sick people.”

Riggleman condemned Snyder’s acceptance of the endorsement, tweeting, “The #GOP has no future with this leadership.”

One of Snyder’s consultants is Diana Shores, who helped lead the effort to oust Riggleman in last year’s convention.  On Wednesday, she praised Hugo’s official mailed flier.   “Kudos to Tim Hugo,” Shores tweeted. “Equality under the law, yes. Pandering to the sexuality club? No thanks. Not sorry.”

The Virginia GOP remains a hate-filled party that has little to offer other than racism and right wing "Christian" extremism.  With luck, th GOP statewide slate will go down yet again to across the board defeat.