Terry McAuliffe appoints Dwight Jones Democrat head in Virginia, gay activist unhappy
Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic leader of Virginia announced Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones to be his nominee to head the Democrat Party in Virginia, but gay rights supporters are unhappy.
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Jones banned discrimination against gay city employees, issued a proclamation to mark the city’s Transgender Day of Remembrance and his police chief appointed the city’s first LGBT liaison – all detailed by the Washington Post coverage.
None of this matters to gay rights activists, because Jones is also a pastor and has not fully supported same-sex marriage.
“It’s not over,” said Joel McDonald, spokesman for LGBT Democrats of Virginia. “We’re looking for Governor McAuliffe to make a better decision here.”
“When the top five Democrats in the state all support marriage equality, it seems out of step to have a chairman who doesn’t,” said state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria). “The party has changed and our leaders have changed.”
The article notes “The controversy reveals how rapidly same-sex marriage has gained acceptance within the Democratic Party and across the country. Even in a state as tradition-bound as Virginia, endorsing gay marriage has morphed with astonishing speed from an act of political daring to Democratic orthodoxy.”
“This matter is evidence of how the approval of the gay rights agenda within the Democratic Party poses an existential threat to the political futures of loyal Democrats who dare to transgress the emerging litmus test over ‘marriage equality'” notes Newsbusters.
