Fundies Plan Attacks on Lesbian Mayoral Candidate During Runoff

Anti-Gay Treatment, as Prescribed by Dr. Steven Hotze, Homophobe M.D.

The Religious Right, puffed up with success after destroying same-sex marriage in Maine, have been on the lookout for a new anti-gay crusade to launch.  These forces of self-righteous absolutism are now targeting the city I call home: Houston, Texas.  With a team of dedicated homo-haters already in place, it should be an interesting battle.

Dan writes on Texas Freedom Network:  It really was only a matter of time.  For months the Houston mayoral election focused on issues important to most working families in the city - issues like crime, transportation and economic development.  Oh sure, there were occasional subtle references by far-right political activists to the fact that candidate Annise Parker, the current city controller, is a lesbian.  But an organized anti-gay smear campaign didn’t develop. That is, it didn’t develop until now, with Parker facing former city attorney Gene Locke in a runoff election on December 12. 

Curiously, Gene Locke was once considered a friend of the LGBT community.  As a city attorney under former Mayor Bob Lanier, he wrote Houston’s first gay-inclusive non-discrimination policy.  But that was in a different time, and Locke's mayoral ambitions hadn't yet sent him scurrying to the dark side for political allies.  Locke knows his earlier support for gay rights won't draw any Bible thumpers to the voting booth, and with a recent survey that shows Parker trouncing him 47-34 percent, Locke's campaign advisers have decided to cast their net in Lake Hate.  Local news outlets report that the candidate is actively courting hardcore religious fanatics whose strategy is to attack Parker's sexuality.

From the Houston Chronicle:  A cluster of socially conservative Houstonians is planning a campaign to discourage voters from choosing City Controller Annise Parker in the December mayoral runoff because she is a lesbian, according to multiple ministers and conservatives involved in the effort.  The group is motivated by concerns about a “gay takeover” of City Hall, given that two other candidates in the five remaining City Council races are also openly gay, as well as national interest driven by the possibility that Houston could become the first major U.S. city to elect an openly gay woman.  (Horrifying!  A homosexual junta wielding power over zoning restrictions, city services, traffic regulations, and fixing potholes.  Hide the children!) ... Locke has also met with and sought the endorsement of Dr. Steven Hotze, a longtime local kingmaker in conservative politics and author of the Straight Slate in 1985, a coterie of eight City Council candidates he recruited who ran on an anti-gay platform. 

I was living here in 1985 and I remember Hotze's first LGBT-bashing campaign.  It was one of sleaziest political ploys I'd seen since Anita Bryant's anti-gay jihad in the seventies.  To date, this physician has not healed himself, and he injects a syringe full of hate into every city race he touches.  Hotze is, quite simply, Houston's own Sally Kern. 

The Houston Press describes Dr. Hotze as "a national leader in the Christian Reconstruction movement, whose more extreme elements advocate replacing democratic government with rule by a theocratic elite." (Theocracy, the end goal of all Christian Dominionists.  No more Church and State.  Just Church.)   Tim Fleck elaborates:  Steven Forrest Hotze has carved out a niche in local politics over the past decade as an unyielding and strident opponent of abortion and public acceptance of homosexuality. He may not be a household name outside Republican circles, but within the party he is admired by a devout coterie of followers, catered to by secular conservatives and feared by moderates, who find themselves in a position of needing his approval to win nominations in GOP primaries.  Those summoned to kiss his ring encounter a tough, uncompromising zealot who is used to getting his own way.

The fact that Gene Locke wants to align himself with this homobigot speaks volumes.  It's going to get nasty, folks.

UPDATE via Pam's House Blend:  Local wingnut Dave Wilson sent out a postcard to 35,000 people featuring a photo of Parker and her partner, declaring, "Is this the image Houston wants to portray?" ...But the lunacy doesn't stop there. The other reason that Dave Wilson needed to send a reminder about Parker's lesbianism is that, apparently, if you're gay and elected to office, you will help in the extinction of the human race.  (KHOU Channel 11 has video.)

(Pictured top: Hotze, Parker, Locke) 

Comments

[Aggie, Fair Haven, Vermont]

Someone needs to run spots drawing comparisons between medievalist Christian fundamentalists and medievalist Islamic ones... I think the time to play nice is past on this one. There's not an iota of difference between Aiman Al-Zawahiri and (insert American fundy preacher name here), they agree on so much more than they disagree. The Christian Reconstructionist/Dominionists are our very own Al-Qaeda, our very own Taliban, and I wonder how long it'll be before one of them straps on a vest, walks into a Planned Parenthood clinic, and blows himself up.

[Trent]

I've always heard that Houston is a progressive city. Let's hope this shit blows up in their faces.

[Candice]

My parents live in Houston, they're regular churchgoers, and they support Parker for mayor because of her experience. They could care less about the fact that she's gay. So all this is going to do is make right-wingers look bad.

[Judy in Miami]

I've been following this blog for several months... but this is the 1st time I felt I had anything worthwhile to ad to the comments section --

I was in Florida when Anita Bryant was doing her stuff. (Shows you all how old I am. Ha.) After she stirred up the crowds there were lots of hate crimes directed against the community, although they weren't called hate crimes in those day. I recall dozens of assaults and three murders that were never solved, one the killings was probably committed by a certain cop that hated homosexuals and had taken our activist friened away in a squad car. Back then, our resources were limited. There was no Internet and no social networking sites to spread the word and fight back. It was a brutal time.

No one from the religious community ever stepped up and condemned what was happening... which is why I no longer have faith in organized religion. Sorry for the long comment.

[madfloridian]

Ah, Anita Bryant. I remember her well. I was still Southern Baptist then, and they revered her. She was so arrogant. I found this tidbit about her.

Anita Bryant is alive ... and up to her old tricks
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/03/like_satan_anita_bryant_keeps.php

This part is most interesting.

"Some of y'all are, sadly, too young to remember the woman who might be the country's original celebrity right-winger -- a milder, sunnier and way-hotter precursor to Fred Phelps. Younguns who've seen the movie might recognize her as one of the villains in the Harvey Milk story. But those of us who are a certain age -- old enough to remember her impossible-to-forget commercials for Florida Orange Juice -- know the former Miss Oklahoma (and second runner-up for Miss America) as the insidiously beautiful spokeswoman for the ugly anti-gay media campaigns of the 1970s.

And because Missouri can lay claim to a brief period of her infamous life -- like many withered performers of the ostensibly wholesome variety, she had her own theater in Branson for awhile, before reportedly fleeing the state with $116,000 in unpaid liens on her bankrupt property -- it's with great pleasure that we send you to the latest update on her nefarious whereabouts.

A journalist in Oklahoma City discovered her discreet offices in the city's trendy Bricktown (think Westport) district, where, he reports, she's making plans to wage "a new battle against homosexuals." He went under cover to try to get to the bottom of what Bryant and her husband, a brutish former NASA test crewman, were up to. It turns out to be unintentionally hilarious, weird and semi-frightening stuff, some of it involving possible connections to defense contractors and former Congressman and possible Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate J.C. Watts."

[Max P.]

That IS interesting, Madflo - and within that link I noticed a link to Gossip Boy's even larger expose on Bryant's latest "project." All I can say is... WOW. I confess I hadn't read anything about it till now. Thanks!

[madfloridian]

Max, I met her a couple of times at Citrus Mutual events, not impressed at all. She was so full of herself and her piety...and her beauty. I felt like telling her real beauty went much deeper. I saw her bigotry up close, and never forgot it. I think she got over 100,000 as the citrus spokesperson in the 70s. Not bad money for that time.

[Captain Optimistic]

I agree with Aggie to the extent that we need to hit back, hard. Run spots and send out flyers depicting candidates who support theocrats as theocracts themselves. "How will our new state religion impact YOUR religious practice?". "What are you willing to trade for your religious freedoms?".

What we want to do is draw a distinction between theocratic Christians and normal Christians while we engage in these attacks. While we wouldn't conflate the two, the conservatives are so used to that they might, and will play the victim as loudly as they can. We can be just as fierce as the Republicans without stooping to their level.