Winsome Earle-Sears, attempting to sidestep a question on discrimination against trans students in Virginia schools asked of her in Thursday’s gubernatorial debate, tried, oddly, to make the issue about football, with the observation that “biological men are larger in strength than women.”
Biological men are, on the aggregate, “larger in strength,” so, she’s not entirely wrong there.
Where the MAGA Republican nominee for governor is wrong is on what she tried steer herself away from saying out loud, then couldn’t help herself from repeating, at almost full roar, over and over and over.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, opened her response by noting that Earle-Sears “has previously said that she does not think that gay couples should be allowed to marry.”
Earle-Sears interrupted: “That’s not discrimination!”
Spanberger: “She said that she is morally opposed to same-sex marriage.”
Earle-Sears: “That’s not discrimination!”
Spanberger: “My opponent has also previously said that she thinks it’s OK for someone to be fired from their job for being gay. That is discrimination.”
Earle-Sears: “That’s not discrimination!”
It’s so obviously discrimination that all you have to do is replace the words “gay” and “same-sex” with “Black” – Earle-Sears is Black, a Jamaican immigrant who moved to the States at the age of 6 – to see just how discriminatory her ideas are.
To wit:
“Black couples should not be allowed to marry.”
“She’s morally opposed to Black marriage.”
“It’s OK for someone to be fired from their job for being Black.”
“Virginia families deserve better than a leader who refuses to protect their rights under the law. The lieutenant governor last night showed Virginians that she is more focused on dividing people than solving problems,” Spanberger said in a statement issued by her campaign on her behalf on Friday.
“No company wants to grow in a state where the governor excuses discrimination and supports firing workers because of who they are. Her comments tell businesses and families that Virginia is closed to the talent, investment, and innovation that keeps our economy strong,” Spanberger said.
ICYMI
This is the issue that, to me, should unite us all – Democrat and Republican, conservative Christian and liberal secularist, everybody in between and all around.
A lot of folks identify as LGBTQ+.
Do we really want to signal to the world: we don’t value the basic human rights of nearly a quarter of our population?
We know that, according to Gallup, 9.3 percent of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ+, and that the numbers are much larger for the young demographic groups – 14.2 percent of Millennials and 23.1 percent of Gen Z.
Doesn’t take much to figure that the declining stigma in identifying as LGBTQ+ is at play there, and that the population as a whole is a lot closer to one in four of us being LGBTQ+ than we are one in 10.
Winsome Earle-Sears wants us to believe that it’s OK to tell one in four that they can’t get married, and that it’s OK for them to be fired from their jobs just for being who they are.
Nah.
“To say that being against people marrying who they love is not discrimination, or it’s OK to fire somebody because they’re LGBTQ is not discrimination, that was a shocker,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters on a press call on Friday.
More from Kaine:
“It’s shocking to me that that thought would cross your mind, and it’s even more shocking to people when you say it. That is something that’s not going to sit well with a majority of Virginians. Virginians overwhelmingly accept that you ought to be able to marry who you love. And Virginians overwhelmingly accept that at work, you ought to be measured on your work, your work ethic, your productivity. Firing somebody because they’re LGBTQ, to say that’s not discrimination, that was a real head-scratcher.”
It’s frustratingly obvious that the Earle-Sears campaign has decided to make the very existence of LGBTQ+ people a wedge issue – running TV ads on trans students in bathrooms and one in which the campaign claims that “Spanberger will let children change genders without telling their parents.”
This, as she ignores the presence of a gay man, John Reid, as one of her running mates on the MAGA Republican state ticket.
Reid, who backed his way into the nomination for lieutenant governor when his sole opponent dropped out of the race due to health issues, isn’t exactly doing the LGBTQ+ community any favors with what could be a history-making candidacy.
The former radio talk-show host has meekly indicated his continued support for Earle-Sears in spite of her opposition to his existence as a human being, as his party has been trying to run and hide from him since the spring, in hopes that his presence on the ticket won’t turn off a wide swath of social conservatives from even bothering to vote.
ICYMI
Notably, Reid hasn’t addressed the unfortunate “that’s not discrimination” show from Earle-Sears, which his Democratic opponent, State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, is using against him.
“Winsome Earle-Sears and John Reid will not protect the rights of gay Virginians to marry who they love or to be free from discrimination in the workplace. Virginians deserve better than leaders who support stripping away freedoms and will move our Commonwealth backwards,” Hashmi said, ahead of the money quote:
“I will always fight for John Reid’s right to marriage equality – even if he won’t.”
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
