PA State House Candidate ’Outed’ - As Straight. Is this Progress or what!
PA State House Candidate ’Outed’ - As Straight
by Kilian Melloy
Friday Apr 23, 2010
In a twist that some take as a sign of progress, one Philadelphia politician has accused another of hiding his true sexual orientation: incumbent state Rep. Babette Josephs, a Democrat, has accused Gregg Kravitz, who is running for her seat, of being heterosexual--and only pretending to be bisexual in order to curry votes from the GLBT community, according to an April 23 story at Philly.com.
Email
Print
Share"I outed him as a straight person," the 70-year-old Josephs told attendees of a fundraiser, some of whom reacted with amusement. But Josephs had a more serious claim to make: "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 claimed. Josephs also said that Kravitz has a trust fund and "has never had a job," and intimated that he was a dilettante with little true political passion.
Kravitz, 29, expressed umbrage, saying, "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." As for the trust fund story, "I wish it were true," said Kravitz. The article offered a thumbnail of his career: a trader for a financial services firm, then a political consultant and fundraiser. Most recently, the article said, Kravitz had worked as a spokesperson for another politician.
"We’ve hit a new high point when candidates are accused of pretending to be gay to win a seat," Mark Segal, a longtime proponent of GLBT equality, said. Segal, who publishes the Philadelphia Gay News, added, "I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and I never have heard of this kind of charge in any race in the nation. I take that as flattery. It shows how far we’ve come."
"My sexuality is not a qualification for office," said Kravitz. "I bring it up only in the context that it’s important for the LGBT community to have a seat at the legislative table."
TPM reported on April 22 that Josephs had begun to distance herself from her earlier comments, telling the site, "I don’t even care, because a person’s sexuality has nothing to do with any of this."
"Be careful about being open because somebody like Babette Josephs will publicly ridicule you," Kravitz told TPM, saying that was the lesson he had learned. TPM noted that it was Kravitz himself who had supplied the media with a recording of Josephs’ comments.
Some observers were skeptical. "A sign of progress," repeated commentary atwizbang.com, where the story was ere-posted on April 23. Commented the individual who posted the article, "Is there any surprise that these same people are painting Tea Party members as extreme?
"I guess they have a point," added the commentator. "If this is the new norm, I’d rather be an extremist."
Comments