Candidates Who Play Anti-Gay Card

"Within the Republican Party, there is a small, vocal minority for whom this is an issue above all others," says Reese. "It has become obsessive. We have spent so much time on the gay and abortion issues to the exclusion of the people's real problems."

"The Republicans are increasingly willing to use innuendo to imply that being single -- wink, wink -- makes you unsuitable for public office," says Del. Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington), the state's only openly gay legislator. "Ninety-nine percent of Virginians want to hear about transportation, education and health care."

In Loudoun County, Del. Dick Black, one of the harshest social conservatives in the House, sent out a letter this month warning that his opponent, David Poisson, would "press radical new homosexual ideas" if elected.

A letter signed this month by more than 700 Virginia clergy and religious people asked candidates to pledge not to appeal to prejudices based on sexual orientation. An organizer of the pledge, John Humphrey of Hope United Church of Christ in Alexandria, said Grignol, Craddock and Black did not respond to the request.

The targets of these tactics aren't happy about the attacks or public discussion of them. They fear that the mere reporting of such tactics might prompt some voters to make choices based on bigotry. But I believe most people, whatever they think of homosexuality, are appalled by this sleaze. It's one reason so few people vote.

More important, reporters have no right to suppress stories like this. When candidates resort to slimy tactics, the public should know about it.

"When the press fails to report on what these people are doing with gay-baiting," Reese says, "we all lose. Horrible things can happen in the dark."

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