Pennsylvania Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) has outed her opponent, Gregg Kravitz, in a bruising campaign in Philadelphia. While politicians often face allegations of being a closeted homosexual, Josephs is accusing Kravitz of being a closet heterosexual in the liberal district.
This appears to be a new trend given our recent look at the lawsuit over three bisexual men being barred from a gay softball league after being declared “non-gay” for playing both sides of the fence, here.
In Center City’s 182d state House district being gay is an important resume item. There, it’s a badge of honor. For that reason, Josephs attacked Kravitz as a faux bisexual. If this does not become a new movie — the inverse of The Bird Cage — I will be astonished. It is not clear if Jospehs has located the opposite of tape used by Kevin Kline in In & Out:
Josephs stated at a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub, “I outed him as a straight person and now he goes around telling people, quote, ‘I swing both ways.’ That’s quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy’s a gem.”
Kravitz, 29, insists that he is faithfully bisexual and objects to having to deal with the issue: “That kind of taunting is going to make it more difficult for closeted members of the LGBT community to be comfortable with themselves. It’s damaging.”
Josephs, 70, is undeterred in her attack on Kravitz as a fraudulent bisexual: “There will be cheating if he can get away with it, because he already has tried to lie to people about a whole bunch of stuff, including his sexuality.” She has also attacked Kravitz as a “trust-fund baby.” It appears that before he can be heard on things like public services he needs to produce proof as to his bed partners — before signed affidavits.
Some have suggested that this is progress for gays. I disagree. This is precisely what homophobes hope for: legitimizing sexuality as a threshold criteria for office. Those people are likely to cite Josephs’ attacks as a defense of their own “outing” of politicians as in the recent attacks on Sen. Lindsey Graham, here.
For the full story, click here.
Byron,
Ya reckon?
Why work at things like definition of and discussion about substantive issues when you can simply fling poo like any other monkey?
It’s so much easier than really working.
why is this even an issue? isn’t political policy and philosophy why we should vote for someone? Something is seriously wrong with both of them. Seems to me they are using this as a distraction from real substantive debate.
Liberals being conned by a smooth talker?! Get outa here ….
Well at least he knows how to take it both ways. He is primed for Congress I am sure.
I think the issue being raised is honesty, not sexual orientation, and that is always a fair issue. On the other hand, after reading the published quotes from Josephs and seeing her approach to this issue, it would be a cold day in hell before I voted for her.