Friday, December 31, 2010

What's With "Sideshow Bob" Marshall and Gay People?

Perhaps no other member of the Virginia General Assembly is as obsessed with all things gay - or homosexual, since that's his preferred term - than Del. Bob Marshall who continually strives to make Virginians seem like utter Neanderthals to rational individuals in other parts of the nation and world. Indeed, Marshall has done everything short of calling for gays to be rounded up, placed in concentration camps and exterminated. Blue Virginia ran a poll on what people thought motivated Marshall's bizarre obsession which mirrors that of professional anti-gay nutcases like Porno Pete LaBarbera and Robert Knight. Not surprisingly, the category receiving the most votes was: "repressed homosexuality/'closet case' syndrome. Based on other shrill closeted Republicans I've known - e.g., former Congressman Ed Schrock - Marshall's wife had better be screening the Mega Phone ads and similar gay hook up sites. As for the bogus excuse of "deep moral/religious beliefs about homosexuality," Lowell has a great take down of Marshall's disingenuousness:
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Perhaps the option which puts "Sideshow Bob" in the best light is that he has "deep moral/religious beliefs about homosexuality." The only problem with that one is, why would "deep moral/religious beliefs" about anything justify bigotry and hateful rhetoric? Also, I'd love to have Bob Marshall point to the passage in the New Testament where Jesus condemns homosexuality, homosexuals, transgender people, whatever. Oh wait, there isn't anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus condemns homosexuality or GLBT people? But then, where would Marshall's "deep moral/religious beliefs about homosexuality" come from, exactly? Perhaps the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, which also states that "every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death;" that "A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death;" that "he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death;" that "the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." Obviously, these are not laws we follow - or that most of us wish to follow - in modern civilization. Bob Marshall, on the other hand? Who knows..
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Marshall - like LaBarbera and Knight - needs to get some serious mental health care intervention, come out of the closet, and stop making life difficult for the rest of us.

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