GOP Gay-Baiting?

Politicians sure are nasty, childish bitches. Especially when it comes to the gays. And even more so when there are Republicans involved.

Case-in-point: Kentucky’s GOP head honcho Steve Robertson‘s accused of implying Attorney General Gregory Stumbo‘s sidekicks, former state Attorney General Jack Conway and Dan Mongiardo, do dudes.

Robertson reportedly sent an email accusing Stumbo of endorsing The University of Kentucky’s board of trustee’s push for gay-inclusive domestic partnerships. Stumbo, however, did no such thing. In fact, he ruled that UK had to change their policy to couldn’t extend domestic rights to “same-sex couples”.

Regardless, Robertson took on Stumbo and his democratic political peers. But, of course, he denies it…

The Courier-Journal elaborates:

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The real intent, Robertson said, was to show how a legal opinion by Attorney General Greg Stumbo helped the University of Kentucky circumvent the state constitution and offer health benefits to its employees’ domestic partners, including gays.

But others saw something more sinister. The column…begins as an attack on UK and calls the benefits plan a victory for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear, who, it said, has “a record of supporting policies aimed at destroying Kentucky’s families.”

It then draws an analogy to the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” and says that if Stumbo is Hansel, then attorney general candidate Jack Conway and Dan Mongiardo, Beshear’s running mate for lieutenant governor, “could easily play the role of Gretel.”

This isn’t the first time The Blue Grass state’s GOP’s used the “gay” card against Mongiardo.

The Republicunts were accused of misrepresenting Mongriardo during the 2004 Gubernatorial election, when they referred to him as a “switch-hitter” and “limp-wristed”. Conway, meanwhile, isn’t used to such bullying.

Griping about Robertson and Governor Ernie Fletcher, Conway cried:

They start a false rumor and they peddle it. When they can’t lead, they lie. They are hate-mongers and fear-mongers that owe my wife an apology.

That’s right, girl!

Kentucky’s Log Cabin Republicans aren’t having it, either. President Jimmy LaSalvia told The Courier-Journal Robertson’s allegedly politically incorrect statements were “an embarrassment”. He went on, “I’m just disappointed, and it really makes me sad that he is the head of our party. We need strong leadership and smart leadership.”

Not ones to be outdone, Kentucky’s Democrats’ chairman Jonathan Miller blasted,

“[Governor] Ernie Fletcher’s administration, which has been so eager to invoke its rights under the Fifth Amendment, would be better off if it spent a little more time reading the Ninth Commandment: ‘Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

Fletcher and friends claim Conway and company are taking the words out of context. The governor’s campaign manager, Marty Ryall scoffed, “They need to take it to Mother Goose”.

The best part about all this shit is that AG Stumbo’s being called out for calling UK’s benefit plan unconstitutional. Why? Because UK’s plan would give gays and straights the same rights. Kentucky’s constitution, however, defines marriage as between a man and a woman. 365gay.com tells us more:

…Attorney General Greg Stumbo issued a legal opinion that the plan would violate the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Stumbo’s non binding opinion suggested that the only way of providing health benefits to the partners of unmarried employees would be to make it all inclusive for any dependent living with a university employee.

The attorney general in releasing the opinion said that if the university did not expand the program, and stuck to providing benefits to unmarried couples, he would take the university to court.

The University agreed to take Stumbo’s advice. Now, rather than reading “same-sex,” domestic partnerships will apply for “adult-sponsored dependents”. It’s to this expansion that Robertson objected. So, basically, he’s angry with Attorney General Stumbo for attempting to enact the constitution to its greatest extent. He’s pushing the University to include as many people as possible under its domestic partnership plan. And it’s good for the University.

President Lee Todd testified,

[Stumbo’s plan] honors our goal of trying to provide affordable health care coverage to our employees and their dependents as part of our efforts to create an attractive and more competitive compensation package for our faculty and staff.

The editor’s at Univeristy of Kentucky Lexington’s The Kentucky Kernal agree:

Stumbo’s announcement was a blow to UK, which had set up the partner benefits plan only a few months earlier.

The plan, however, was a step in the right direction for the university. UK showed compassion to its workers, however small a minority they might be, and showed that its message – “an equal opportunity university,” which appears on every UK business card – is not a message that the school takes for granted.
…
Stumbo also said that if the wording of UK and UofL’s plans was expanded to encompass a wider demographic, not necessarily just same-sex couples, the partner-benefits plan would follow the lines of the state constitution.

Only the nastiest of political bitches could chide that idea. But, again, we’re talking about the GOP here, so it can be expected.