The GOP and Gay-Baiting Politics

From the minnesotaindependent.com.

While Republican Party representatives took heat this week for claiming in fliers that DFL candidate Ashwin Madia had the “wrong demographics” to serve the people of the 3rd Congressional District, they got off lightly with respect to the not-so-veiled undercurrent in their attack on Madia’s “lifestyle.” By larding in mentions of Madia’s household (he’s a renter, not an owner) and his hobbies (he’s not a soccer coach), the tacit insinuation that Madia must be gay is made easier to politely ignore. But it appears to be the real payload behind GOP efforts to point out Madia’s purported, um, difference from the stolid homesteaders of the 3rd District.

“Gutter politics are a gross insult to the good people of our district,” Rep. Jim Ramstad said Tuesday while praising Republican candidate Erik Paulsen for upholding of the “proud tradition of clean politics and ethical campaigns.” But as history demonstrates, there is a long and unadmirable record of flogging a political opponent’s unmarried status as a genteel means of throwing the race into the gutter. And since no accusation is ever actually made, the implication is not really susceptible to rebuttal. It just hangs out there with a wink.

Victory Fund Claiming Gay-Baiting in Kansas

A lesbian Democrat’s loss in a Kansas primary election that followed alleged gay-baiting tactics has triggered a flurry of finger-pointing among those involved.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund has said Inga Taylor lost the Aug. 5 primary for a state House seat because her opponent, Gail Finney, launched “a last minute, anti-gay smear campaign” against the lesbian candidate.

But Thomas Witt, chair of the Kansas Equality Coalition, a statewide gay activist group, said the Victory Fund is making inaccurate accusations against Finney to cover its own mistakes in the campaign.

Witt, who was initially involved with Taylor’s campaign, has called on the Victory Fund to apologize.

Read more at washingtonblade.com.

McCain is Gay Baiting and it Has to Stop!

John Aravosis of Americablog thinks McCain is involved in a not so subtle attempt to suggest that Barack Obama may be gay.

“McCain and his people are attempting to define Obama as “gay” by describing him as the stereotypical gay man. Yesterday, a McCain spokesman described Obama as fussy and prone to hysterics. A few days earlier, we were told that Obama was “flitting” around Europe. And before that, a GOP operative called Obama “a fancy lad.”

Read more at Americablog.