Yes, Virginia, This Is Equality

I have written a lot about Tracy Thorne-Begland’s journey, and fight, against the GOP wingnuts in Virginia [HERE, HEREand HERE] and it’s nice to finally post about his success. See, last Friday, Virginia made history for itself when Tracy Thorne-Begland was sworn in as the state’s first openly gay judge. Thorne-Begland is now a General District Court Judge and will hold court in Richmond.

And while it was a happy day for Thorne-Begland, his partner of twenty years and their two children, it certainly wasn’t an easy road. Last May, there were some in Virginia’s House of Delegates—lead by the “Pissy” Bobby Marshall—who thought that having an openly gay judge would lead to some sort of LGBT activism from the bench.

Like, I dunno, making it a crime not attend Pride Parades in the state.

Like, I dunno, making it a crime not to watch The New Normal.

Like, and this is real, maybe Thorne-Begland would legalize same-sex marriage in the state even though he has no power to do so.

It’s funny that these wingnuts like “Pissy” Bobby think a gay judge will make gay choices and rulings from the bench and not follow the letter of the law, but don’t think some radical wingnut conservative judge might do the same.

Back in May, “Pissy” Bobby Marshall said of Thorne-Begland: “I don’t even think it’s proper to put his name forward because of his behavior.”

His behavior is that he’s gay and is actively supportive of LGBT causes.

And still, Virginia lawmakers voted against Thorne-Begland serving as a General District Court judge in 2012, but the Richmond Circuit Court appointed him to serve an interim position last June. And this past January Thorne-Begland met with lawmakers to discuss both his sexual orientation, and his military career.

Delegate David B. Albo, Chair of the Courts and Justice Committee, asked: “Some say you lied on your application to be in the military because it asks if you are gay.”

Thorne-Begland reminded them that he joined the military in 1988 said, “When I was going through the process of joining the military I didn’t know I was gay.”

The long process of answering personal questions about his life and everything he said or did, took a toll on Thorne-Begland, but said he finally saw some hope when he received help from Republican—you read that right—delegate Manoli Loupassi.

“So the fact is that his sexual orientation has nothing to do with it. If you’re black or Latino or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Can you do the job? Are you qualified for the job? If you’re qualified and you can do the job then you’ll you should be able to get the job, too.”—Manoli Loupassi

And that’s all it should boil down to; it matters not with whom Tracy Thorne-Begland sleeps with, or whether or not he’s supported LGBT causes throughout his life. It should simply matter whether or not he can do the job, and last week Virginia said loud and clear that he can do it.

And he will.

Congratulations Tracy.

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Tracy Thorne-Begland Gets The Job

Tracy Thorne-Begland

In spite of the Virginia Assembly’s rejection of his nomination—and Pissy Little Bobby Marshall’s stomping and seeing—last week Richmond Circuit Court judges appointed Tracy Thorne-Begland’s , an openly gay prosecutor, to the bench.

Take that Pissy Bobby Marshall. [see original post HERE]

Thorne-Begland’s appointment to the city’s General District Court immediately revived one of the most heated issues of the legislative season and promised to incite even more controversy next year, when legislators will have the chance to undo the temporary appointment.

The move was hailed by gay rights supporters and some conservatives, including Governor Robert McDonnell—who was agin it before he was afer it--who once questioned whether gays who are :::gasp::: sexually active could serve as judges because they had broken Virginia’s now-invalidated anti-sodomy statute.

“The Governor believes Mr. Thorne-Begland is well-qualified to serve on the bench,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said. “He congratulates him on the appointment.”

But the appointment enraged Delegate Robert Marshall—AKA Pissy Bobby—who stood side-by0side with hate group, the Family Foundation of Virginia, to persuade the General Assembly to reject Thorne-Begland’s nomination.

“I think it’s highly imprudent and arrogant on their part,” Pissy said. “I hope Virginia understands what’s going on here: They’re contesting the authority of the General Assembly. . . . This is an act of defiance on their part. When appointed officials get in fights with elected officials, they invariably lose.”

Boo-freaking-hoo.

Tracy Thorne-Begland issued a statement which said, “I am humbled by the Circuit Court’s decision. I look forward to serving the citizens of the City of Richmond as a jurist, and over the coming months, I hope that my service provides comfort to all Virginians that I remain committed to the faithful application of the laws and Constitutions of Virginia and the United States of America.”

Um, and that’s his job, Pissy Bobby.

The appointment came after leaders of Richmond’s five largest law firms urged the Circuit Court appoint Thorne-Begland to the bench, and on the same day that the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a letter that Republican delegate, Richard Morris, sent to his caucus, saying that he had dropped his opposition to Thorne-Begland.

Well, at least one Virginia Republican has his head screwed on, for lack of a better word, straight.

It was last month that the General Assembly blocked Thorne-Begland’s appointment in General District Court saying they objected to Thorne-Begland, not because of his sexual orientation, but because of his outspokenness on the subject of gay rights.

You know, he’s one of those queers that likes to speak up instead of staying in a closet and not disturbing the normal folk.

Pissy Bobby Marshall

And Pissy Bobby Marshall, in his, I think, self-loathing closeted homosexual, rampage against Thorne-Begland’s appointment, actually compared him to a polygamist, and said that because Virginia does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, Thorne-Begland’s “life [is] a contradiction to the requirement of submission to the constitution.”

I think Pissy Bobby protests too much.

And, well, as much as the appointment of Thorne-Begland makes me happy, and, well, as much as I like to see asshats take a tumble, I can also gleefully report that Pissy Bobby Marshall lost the Republican primary for the US to former governor George Allen.

And he tried to use the  Thorne-Begland  issue against Allen, who said sexual orientation should not be a factor in selecting judges.

Which means the people of Virginia deserve a little LGBT Hallelujah for not drinking the Pissy Bobby Hate Kool-Aid.

Still, the fight is not over for Tracy Thorne-Begland. He will have another fight for a vote in the General Assembly. Last time he needed 51 votes to win appointment and received just 33.

Hopefully next time, saner, less pissy heads will prevail.

But not Pissy Bobby Marshall he says if Thorne-Begland was engaged in homosexual sex while in the military, he’s guilty of a felony “Sodomy is still a felony under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, today, as we speak.”

Funny, Pissy Bobby is a little obsessed with how much gay sex Tracy Thorne-Begland may, or may not, have had.

via The Washington Post

Bob McDonnell Steps In It .... Then Steps In It Again

Earlier this month, before the Virginia General Assembly voted to reject Tracy Thorne-Begland—see post HERE-- a gay judicial nominee, Bob McDonnell, the GOP governor said homosexuality should not disqualify someone from serving as a judge. And he said that's always been his position.

“I have long been an advocate of judicial selection based on merit,” McDonnell said on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor.”

Except that's not exactly true, and WTOP host, Mark Seagraves wanted to know about it.

He recalled for the governor, who, like most Republicans, has difficulty remembering which bigoted remarks they uttered and when they uttered them, the time back in 2003 when McDonnell himself lead a successful effort to unseat a lesbian Circuit Court judge. See, then-delegate McDonnell actually questioned whether someone who had engaged in oral or anal sex could serve as a judge because that behavior would violate the state’s anti-sodomy statute.

And, when asked about that today, McDonnell said to Seagraves, “No, I think you got that out of context.”

And Seagraves asked, "What is context for it?”

"Bob McDonnell, stammered, as he tried to recall his open bigotry from 2003 and how to mesh it with his closeted bigotry of 2012, and said, “What I said was someone, at the time, actually there were certain acts that would be a crime —”

“It’s 2003. Anti-sodomy laws,” said Mark Seagraves.

McDonnell responded, “Right. If someone had [committed] a crime, honestly that would call into question their ability to be a judge. But I was very clear in other statements of the time that those factors should not be an element of the decision making.”

Now, digging back into history, that lesbian, Judge Verbena Askew was not reappointed for a second, eight-year term, though McDonnell says it had nothing to do with her orientation. It was due to the fact that Askew had been accused of sexually harassing a female court employee and had not disclosed the woman’s lawsuit against her, as required, on her judicial application.

“There were a lot of things, Mark, that led to that decision,” McDonnell said. “This [her homosexuality] was not a factor. And so I’m disappointed that people still would say that.”

But, Seagraves wanted to know, what if there had been no sexual harassment allegation? What if there had been no undisclosed lawsuit to raise questions about her truthfulness? What if she’d simply been a gay judge having gay sex at a time when that was illegal in Virginia? Would that have been okay?

“Mark, that’s 10 years ago,” McDonnell said. “When somebody violates the law, then it’s going to make it hard for them to be a judge, don’t you agree? ... But that’s not what happened in that case.”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws later in 2003 and so Seagraves asked if the now-invalidated law might still be used to disqualify those gay judicial nominees who were sexually active in Virginia before the Supreme Court ruling because they would, in fact, be criminals.

The question appeared to catch McDonnell off guard: “What I, the law at the time, and so, I —”

Once he was able to compose himself, and fighting the pain of his own past words biting him on the ass, McDonnell said he would not object to a gay nominee “if they are otherwise qualified to be on the bench based on merit, ability, judicial temperament and ability to follow the law regardless of what their political beliefs are.”

But that's today. That's not the Bob McDonnell of 2003, no matter how much he tries to spin it. And it certainly wasn't Bob McDonnell who stepped in on behalf of Throne-Begland and asked the Virginia House to keep his sexual orientation out of their discussions.

So, McDonnell hasn't really changed, has he? He's just keeping his bigotry a little closer to the vest these days.

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Virginia Caves To ISBL Asshat of the Week: Pissy Bobby Marshall

It seems like only yesterday that Virginia state representative Bob Marshall was names ISBL's Asshat of the Week and.....what's that? It was yesterday? See post HERE.

But it gets worse. The Virginia General Assembly rejected a man for a Richmond judgeship because he's gay. I mean, they say they have other reasons, like they say he might not uphold the Virginia law that says marriage is between one man and one woman.

But really, it's because he's gay. And has a partner. And they have children.

Virginia conservatives argued that  Tracy Thorne-Begland 's support for gay marriage and his challenge to the military’s now-defunct “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy make him unfit for the bench. The House of Delegates voted 33 to 31, with 10 abstentions, to make Thorne-Begland a General District Court judge in Richmond, but he needed 51 votes in the 100-member chamber to win appointment.

And why did pissy Bobby Marshall vote against Thorne-Begland? “He holds himself out as being married,” Marshall said.

And he won't have a man being married to a man on the bench.

And even the Virginia Senate chickened out; they didn't vote on the nomination itself, but the Republicans killed it by passing it by for the day--the very last of this year’s General Assembly session. The decision to pass it by cleared cleanly along party lines, although one Democrat,  Yvonne Miller didn't vote.

Democratic Senator Adam Ebbin, Virginia’s first openly gay state senator, was sickened by the way this was handled. “The debate in the House of Delegates was homophobic and embarrassing and showed disrespect to a chief deputy commonwealth attorney and decorated veteran who was honorably discharged. It’s offensive that the Senate wouldn’t even grant Lt. Thorne-Begland the courtesy of a vote.”

And even the governor, one of the biggest wingnuts in the GOP, Bob McDonnell said, through a spokesman that a judicial nominee’s sexual orientation should not be an issue: “The Governor believes candidates for judicial vacancies must be considered based solely on their merit, record, aptitude and skill. No other factors should ever be considered and the Governor has long made clear that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not acceptable in state government.”

Let's end with some more bigotry and just plain ignorance, from Granny Panty Pissy Bobby Marshall, who actually said, “I would guess--law of averages--we’ve probably nominated people who have homosexual inclinations.”

First off, Pissy, it isn't an inclination. My inclination is to believe you are a closeted self-loathing homosexual who is so petrified of being outed that even voting for an openly gay nominee to a district court sends you into a tailspin of hate.

That's an inclination, asshat.

But then Marshall goes on to get more pissy because Tracy Thorne-Begland came out as a gay Naval officer on “Nightline” more than twenty ago to challenge DADT. Marshall says the action amounted not just to insubordination, but to a waste of taxpayer dollars, since it resulted in his dismissal from the Navy: “The Navy spent $1 million training him. That’s cheating the country out of the investment in him.”

Oh, Pissy, you are just too stupid. He didn't come out so he could leave the military and waste the taxpayer dollars that trained him; he came out because he didn't want to live a life as a hypocrite and a liar.

You should try it.

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ISBL Asshat of the Week: Bob Marshall

Virginia delegate Bob Marshall has a new honor today, as he has just won the ISBL Asshat of the Week award for his bigotry, homophobia, and downright ignorance.

See, Marshall has announced that he will seek to remove Tracy Thorne-Begland, a Richmond lawyer, and supposed “aggressive activist for the pro-homosexual agenda” from a list of proposed District Court judicial appointments if Thorne-Begland’s name remains on the list when it comes to a vote Monday in the Virginia General Assembly.

Pissy Bobby Marshall

See, pissy little Bobby Marshall has been foot-stomping and head-snapping all week because, and these are his own whiny little words, “After more than a week of pleading by some Republican Caucus members, the House Republican leadership has so far declined to removed Mr. Thorne-Begland’s name from the block of nominees. If this situation remains unchanged, I will offer an amendment to remove his name.”

See, Pissy Bobby Marshall questions whether Thorne-Begland can swear to the oath required of Virginia’s judges in which they pledge to abide by the state’s constitution “if he has already indicated by his past public actions that he does not support its provision ‘that only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivision.’”

Um, his job, you dimwitted bigot, is to uphold the law. Take your moronic head out of your moronic ass.

But, Pissy Bobby Marshall is just plain sickened by the fact that Thorne-Begland lives with a ‘partner” with whom he has a formalized homosexual union, two adopted children.  Thorne-Begland has been active in the national homosexual advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, and with Equality Virginia, of which he is a former board member.

Marshall also pointed out that, back in 1992, Thorne-Begland, as a Navy aviation lieutenant, went on national television to disclose his homosexuality. He was subsequently discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Thorne-Begland sued the Defense Department, alleging that his right to free speech had been restricted, but he lost the case on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond.

Tracy Thorne-Begland

“Mr. Throne-Begland joined the Navy under clear rules on homosexuality that he challenged when he sued the Department of Defense to change DADT,” Marshall said. “Would Mr. Thorne-Begland also challenge rules that apply to Virginia courts?  Can this candidate swear the required oath to support our state’ constitution if he has already indicated by his past actions that he does not support that section of our constitution barring same-sex legal relationships? While our judges and judicial candidates certainly have a right to free speech, they do not have the right to disregard the Virginia constitution”

But, Pissy Bobby Marshall is especially pissy that Throne-Begland exercises his right to Free Speech regularly. He’s pissy that Throne-Begland has a partner. He’s pissed that Throne-Begland has children,. He’s pissed, plainly and simply, that Thorne-Begland is gay.

And that’s why Pissy Pants In A Wad, Bobby Marshall is a lucky recipient of the ISBL Asshat of the Week Award.

He’s oh, so, deserving.

source: Pissy Bobby Marshall's Website