Both the Winston-Salem Journal and the High Point Enterprise slam Rep. Larry Brown for his e-mail comments referring to gays as “queers” and “fruit loops.” The Enterprise has an interesting take:
Brown’s use of homosexual slurs in this e-mail indicates a bias and a bigotry that says his votes on legislation in these matters could be impacted more by his bias and bigotry than the laws and constitutions that govern our state and nation. Certainly, legislators who debate these issues when they are proposals before the General Assembly are free to oppose them if they wish. But that opposition should be argued from a rational standpoint, not a position based in bigotry, which Brown’s comments seem to indicate.
The one problem with that view is that even if a legislator uses a ‘rational standpoint’ to vote against legislation related to homosexuality, pro-gay groups will still say his vote was grounded in bigotry. That’s the way the left operates on pretty much any issue. If you use a ‘rational standpoint’ to vote against draconian environmental legislation, then you’re for dirty air. If you use a ‘rational standpoint’ to vote against government takeover of the healthcare system, then you’re against sick people. If you’re for a ‘rational’ school assignment policy, you’re against black kids. You get the idea.
I’m not defending Rep. Brown’s comments. I’m just saying that that they’re some issues where using rational standpoints does legislators absolutely no good.
