Today's Cavailer Daily has an editorial accusing Tim Kaine - as well as "prominent Virginia bloggers" (love that one!) - of "gay baiting." Specifically, the editorial refers to Kaine calling Kilgore "weak" and accusing Kilgore of "not being straight" (and leaving off the phrase "with voters" at the end). Then there's the whole Jerry the Duck thing, in which Kilgore sounds, well, go listen for yourself!The editorial concludes that, although "Tim Kaine is by far the best candidate in this race," he is doing something shameful by pandering to anti-gay prejudice and by making frequent allusions to Jerry Kilgore's sexuality.
Does this editorial have a point? Are Kaine and his internet allies "gay baiting" Kilgore by playing clips of him speaking in is own (extremely effeminate) voice? By mentioning that Kilgore worked with a speech coach to tone down his, er, "accent" (you know, the one he claims he's so proud of)? By pointing out that Kilgore is "ducking" debates with him and refusing to speak for himself in his radio ads? By questioning the strength of Kilgore's proposals for Virginia?
Seems to me that this whole issue gotten wildly blown out of proportion because the Kilgore campaign started accusing Kaine of being prejudiced against people with southwest Virginia accents. On top of that, there' s the issue of hypocrisy -- Jerry Kilgore pandering to gay bashers himself while complaining about being gay bashed!
We're talking, specifically, about Kilgore's support for a federal anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment, his alliance with Pat "gays were partly to blame for 9/11" Robertson, his warm embrace of and by the Family Foundation of Virginia,, his opposition to adding protective language for gays to the Fairfax County School Board's nondiscrimination policy, etc., etc. Of course, even that wasn't good enough for the Family Foundation of Virginia, which criticized Kilgore as not being anti-gay enough ("for signing a pledge that he will not discriminate against gay men and lesbians in his office"). Wow, it's tough being an effeminate man in a party that hates and ridicules "girlie-men!"
In other words, Jerry Kilgore, whatever his sexuality, keeps getting tangled up with the far-right-wing of his party over opposition to the so-called "gay agenda." Now, instead of saying, "yeah, I'm effeminate, so what of it," Kilgore attacks Tim Kaine for supposedly being "prejudiced" against southwest Virginia accents, a charge which is so ridiculous it doesn't even begin to pass the minimal "laugh test."
The bottom line here is that Jerry Kilgore is stuck in a party that contains a significant component of vocal gay bashers and gay baiters. In contrast, Democrats are highly welcoming to gays and lesbians, and are often lambasted for this fact by right-wing Republicans. Kaine, for instance, was criticized by Republican candidate Jay Katzen during his 2001 run for Virginia Lt. Governor for supporting "civil benefits" for gay couples and anti-discrimination for homosexuals in general. In addition, the Republican Party sent out several direct mail pieces claming that Kaine supported gay marriages. This, from a party with a long history of anti-gay sentiment and closeted gays.
Given all this, it's fascinating to see accusations of "gay baiting" being tossed around against Tim "Civil Benefits" Kaine and his supporters. As Waldo Jaquith stated so well the other day, Republicans "doth protest" a bit much on this issue. Jaquith quotes a Republican who is sick and tired of all the whining about "liberal bigotry" as urging his fellow Republicans to "Grow the **** up and quit whining about perceived slights like the little panty-waisted girly men liberals." Now THAT'S the kind of Republican we Democrats know and love -- tell us how you REALLY feel!