Tell us again how you’re not anti-gay

Way to go, geniuses. Instead of recognizing that another human being has all of the same concerns and problems that you have (wasting time in traffic, maintaining family relationships, building a successful career) and being glad that he is willing to step forward and run for public office, you decided to smear him. And you decided to smear him simply because he’s gay.

Via Equality Fairfax:

Yesterday in Prince William County, Supervisor candidate Jeff Dion and his family were attacked on an anti-gay right-wing blog because of his sexual orientation, his family situation, and oddly enough, the size of his home.

Here is the original outrageous post that was made on the Black Velvet Bruce Li blog

Resulting threads on the popular blogs Not Larry Sabato and Raising Kaine have further discussed the issue of openly gay candidates

Jeff, an Occoquan District resident, is the Democratic nominee for the Prince William County Board of Supervisors special election on January 30th to fill the seat of outgoing Supervisor Corey Stewart (R-Occoquan) who was elected Chairman on November 7th.

Haven’t you gotten the message yet that people are sick and tired of this kind of panty politics? Just because they were willing to vote for an amendment that they were told was “only about marriage” (remember that?) doesn’t mean that they don’t see through over the top personal attacks made by hypocrites.

There is no point in the author backsliding and claiming that this is about anything other than pure animus: “What makes this different,” he foolishly explains, “is that Jeff is now an openly practicing homosexual who lives with his gay partner.”

Already there is accumulating evidence that putting this animus into practice was exactly the purpose of the Marshall/Newman amendment, which the author cites as justification for his nakedly homophobic attack.

Many commenters have already pointed out the obvious – that if divorce suddenly made a person unfit for office there would be a lot of seats to fill. In fact, they’ve already slapped the author silly for this nonsense and suggested that he try sticking to the issues. Isn’t development a big issue in Prince William right now?

Too Conservative has had enough, too; “[S]tick to facts. Stick to issues. These are REAL people’s lives, children, and families.”

This comment says well what needs to be said:

Umm, I wish you people would just realize that:

#1 You’ve already lost this “war” (and it was ONLY your “war”).

#2 People do not hate other people simply because they’re born gay (or even if they choose as you love to assert).

#3 Your espousals would be viewed as an antithesis to the message of Jesus Christ, himself, and by Jesus Christ, himself.

Love thy neighbor. Stop lying about people you fear.

One more thing. When openly gay people run for political office as I did in 2003 in Sterling, it starts to change people’s perceptions. They realize there is nothing to fear, and that lots of good people who are smart and competent and able also happen to be gay.

That’s what you’re really afraid of. And guess what? It changes people’s attitudes. I’m pretty sure most of you would have been surprised to know last year that the amendment would only pass in Loudoun with 54% of the vote, and that 46% would choose a different path.

We are going to win the struggle for our rights and our ability to live our very simple and boring lives with equality under the law, because we deserve it, because we don’t harm anyone, because we raise beautiful. smart, loving and very well adjusted children, and because we have God’s blessing.

You can contact Jeff’s campaign at info@jeffdion.org to support the first openly gay candidate in Prince WIlliam County history.