Gay rights advocates must be tasting blood after the pasting applied to Del. Bradley P. Marrs, R-Chesterfield, for a fund-raising letter that coarsely alluded to the gay sexual orienation of a Richmond businessman who gave money to his opponent. It’s hard to explain otherwise why they now would be attacking him for writing the offending letter on stationery that “mimics official House letterhead.”
According to Jeff Schapiro with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, gay-rights leaders are calling for a legislative ethics panel to investigate whether Marrs violated House rules. “The average person might reasonably understand this lettter to be an official communication from Delegate Marrs in his capacity as a member of the House of Delegates,” senior officials with Equality Virginia, the Log Cabin Republicans of Virginia, and the Lesbian Democratic Club wrote to House Speaker William J. Howell.
Noting that it is common practice among legislators in both parties to send political mail on official-looking stationery, Paul Nardo, Howell’s chief of staff, said there would be no inquiry.
Bacon to gays: Quit while you’re ahead. Gays achieved a remarkable victory in the Marrs brouhaha: Nearly every major political figure in Virginia condemned Marrs’ gay-baiting language. The incident established an important standard for Virginia politics: There is no place for gratuitous references to an individual’s “homosexual” orientation. Don’t obscure this step forward with a controversy over Marr’s choice of stationery.