Kaine’s ‘straight’ talk about effeminate-talking GOP opponent raised gay eyebrows

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Joe Schaeffer

Progressives are expressing anger at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, objecting to his Wall Street ties and support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, among other things.

According to some in their ranks, they can add gay baiting for personal gain to the list.

toughguyIn a 2005 Virginia gubernatorial race that was widely decried for its ugliness, Kaine , who is currently being lavished with praise from establishment homosexual organs for namedropping Harvey Milk during his Democratic National Convention speech, reputedly got in the lowest blow by attacking the perceived effeminate speaking voice of his Republican opponent, Jerry Kilgore.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the leftist Daily Kos website, in a Dec. 2004 post highlighted a reader comment to an article written by progressive blogger Jerome Armstrong:

“Jerry Kilgore is very, very effeminate. People hearing him speak for the first time are often shocked, to the point at which they don’t even pay attention to what he’s saying, because it seems so very obvious that he’s a gay man. I can’t say whether he’s gay or not, but I can say that he exhibits all of the stereotypical traits of an effeminate gay man, and that will not play well in Virginia. The media have picked up on this, with the Staunton News Leader referring to ‘the “Ned Flanders meets Mr. Rogers” whine that passes for Kilgore’s voice,’ and the Hampton Roads Daily Press saying that Kilgore ‘left the appearance of being a little, well, French.'”

Moulitsas included the commenter’s summation:

“This is Kilgore’s big weak spot. Kaine’s campaign will never exploit it, so surrogates must do so on his behalf.”

Kilgore was a married father of two children at the time.

That a prominent leftist online media figure would promote such attacks shows once again that political correctness is nothing more than a weapon for liberals to use against opponents, one that can be quickly discarded if another approach proves more suitable.

And there are other progressives who say that is exactly what the Kaine campaign did, directly exploiting Kilgore’s mannerisms in order to defeat him.

They were not happy about it.

Lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding, in an Oct. 18, 2005 post, railed against Kaine’s “bush-league” attempts to portray Kilgore as weak and unsavory via allusions to homosexuality, quoting extensively from a University of Virginia student newspaper editorial that lays out Kaine’s slur against Kilgore’s manhood.

“So, Jerry Kilgore has a ‘gay-sounding” voice,’ the editorial notes. “This is apparent to almost anyone who has heard him speak. The Republican candidate also has a rural accent, but that’s not what his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, has been making fun of.”

The editorial continues:

“Last week, the Kaine campaign debuted a radio ad, ‘Weak.’ As the title would suggest, the spot suggests that Kilgore is ‘too weak to lead Virginia.’ Has Kilgore done anything, more than most other politicians, to define himself as ‘weak?’ That’s not clear. What is clear is the throwaway line in the ‘Weak’ spot: ‘Jerry Kilgore is not being straight.’ The Kaine camp fails to add the obligatory ‘with voters;’ the ad simply observes, ‘Jerry Kilgore is not being straight,’ period.”

Linton Weeks at The Washington Post seemed to catch the inference in the ad, quoting the “not being straight” line in an article on how nasty the race had become and noting that “Kilgore’s camp takes umbrage at this ad that seems to mock Kilgore’s voice, which is a high-pitched drawl.”

The memory of the ad endured after Kaine went on to win the election.

Left-wing website Slate listed it among its examples in a 2010 article titled “Fussy, Hysterical Wine-Sipping Pols – A History of Political Gay-Baiting.”

And in a 2008 article for the American Prospect opposing Kaine being Barack Obama’s running mate, Dylan Matthews highlighted the ad as chief among his objections:

“Perhaps worst of all, in the 2005 governor’s race his campaign mocked Kilgore’s effeminate voice, and even ran an ad titled ‘Weak,’ calling Kilgore ‘too weak to lead Virginia’ and adding ‘Jerry Kilgore is not being straight.’ It’d be one thing for Obama to choose an anti-choice running mate; picking an anti-choice gay-baiter is even worse.”

Joe Schaeffer is a freelance writer based in Florida.

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