The Politics of Personal Destruction

Politics is the systematic organization of hatreds, said Henry
Adams, whose statement is true but incomplete. Sometimes it?s not
all that systematic. Take the contest currently underway in
Virginia?s 32nd Senate District.
Patrick Forrest is running against incumbent Janet Howell.
Forrest is a Republican, which everyone knows. He is also gay. Not
everyone knows that, but some Democrats in Northern
Virginia?including Howell, Forrest says?are trying to educate
them.
Forrest says a number of conservatives have told him, ?We heard
you?re a homosexual.? He has told them he is, and has always been
openly gay. As Forrest tells the tale, they have said they learned
about it from Democratic volunteers, who also told them Forrest
?would be promoting the homosexual agenda in our schools.?
Nice.
That somebody is gay-baiting seems beyond dispute. Forrest?s
field director, Eric Newland, recorded a conversation with Kavita
Imarti, a precinct captain for the Democratic Party in Reston. On
the recording, made at a party earlier this month, a seemingly
drunk Imarti defends the tactic.
When Newland asks if ?it?s okay for the campaign to be telling
people? about Forrest?s sexual orientation, Imarti responds: ?Yes!
Because you guys are racist [expletives]. . . . You?re racist
[expletive-expletives]. You guys are prejudiced against someone
because of their sexuality. We are basically pinpointing your
prejudice.?
(Those People are always making sweeping generalizations about
other classes of people. Don?t you just hate that.)
The message to conservative Republicans, Imarti goes on, is:
?He?s gay! You guys say you?re anti-gay but you have a gay
candidate. What you gonna do now??
Imarti does not work for the Howell campaign, which
?categorically den[ies] we are sending any messages to Republican
voters on Patrick?s sexuality or otherwise.? Howell also told the
Washington Blade, the gay-oriented newspaper that broke
the story, she is ?deeply offended that Patrick Forrest would lie
like this.? Pretty emphatic. One of these two candidates is clearly
lying. Whom to believe?
When Newland asks Imarti if the whispers are ?coming from the
campaign,? she responds with an emphatic ?Yes!? What?s more,
Forrest claims two GOP lawmakers?State Sen. Mark Obenshain and Del.
Barbara Comstock?say Howell told them about his batting for the
other team. On the other hand Claire Guthrie Gastanaga of Equality
Virginia, a gay-rights group, finds the very idea that Howell would
do such a thing ?silly.?
Obenshain tells the Blade that Howell referred to Forrest as a
RINO, a Republican in Name Only. ?She ticked off three of four
things that would, I guess, indicate he was not conservative. . . .
including that he had a partner.?
Howell?s role in the current contretemps is murky. Other angles
on the story, however, are not.
First, the Virginia Republican Party still displays considerable
hostility to gays and lesbians. That hostility is indefensible.
Second, the GOP?s homophobia will disappear as more Republicans?
family members and friends come out of the closet. Just look at
Vice President Dick Cheney. He has a gay daughter, Mary?and he
supports gay marriage. Probably not just a coincidence. Perhaps
nothing would do more good for the cause of tolerance in Virginia
than to have an openly gay member at every meeting of the House
Republican caucus.
For one thing, such a member could point out that there is no
?homosexual agenda.? That gays and lesbians are not trying to
convert unsuspecting children to their ?lifestyle.? That trying to
stop the relentless bullying of gay and lesbian teen-agers is not
part of some sneaky recruitment drive.
The GOP lawmaker might even share with his party colleagues the
words of comedian Liz Feldman: ?It?s very dear to me, the issue of
gay marriage. Or as I like to call it: ?marriage.? You know,
because I had lunch this afternoon, not gay lunch. I parked my car;
I didn?t gay park it.? Some of them would probably get it.
The third important angle to the Forrest-is-gay story is this: A
person?s sexuality is his business. Nobody else?s. This point is
all too sadly lost on the state?s GOP, which fails to understand
that much of the alleged homosexual agenda boils down to a
politically conservative message. Isaiah Berlin described it as
negative liberty. Less cerebral thinkers would put it this way:
Leave people the hell alone.
Final point?this one for state Democrats: One person?s prejudice
does not give anyone else a free pass to exploit it. The South used
to have a gawdawful lot of racial bigots. Many of them didn?t know
any better. But the national GOP did?and yet it developed the
?Southern Strategy? of exploiting that prejudice. The party?s
pursuit of short-term political gains led to its lasting shame.
(Six years ago, Republican Del. Brad Marrs accused his opponent of
accepting ?another big donation from a wealthy homosexual
businessman.? The accusation backfired, and Marrs lost.)
Likewise, Democrats in Northern Virginia know better than to
harp on a candidate?s sexuality. Doing so might bring them
short-term gain. But playing to homophobia is a form of
participating in it.
To paraphrase Imarti: You guys say you?re pro-gay, but you?re
running an anti-gay whisper campaign. What you gonna do about
it?
A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. This article
originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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