Black Kansas Lesbian Loses Dem Primary After Anti-Gay Smear
An 11th hour, anti-gay smear campaign in the Democratic primary keeps Kansas from electing its first openly gay state legislator and America’s first African-American lesbian state lawmaker.
Inga Taylor, a black lesbian medical assistant in Wichita, lost last night's bitterly-contested Democratic primary for the state's 84th District House seat. Taylor was endorsed by the Victory-Fund, which helps recruit and support openly gay candidates, and "outraised and out-organized her opponent, Gail Finney. But Finney and her supporters launched a late mail, e-mail and phone campaign highlighting Taylor’s sexual orientation and contributions to her campaign from the Victory Fund."
In one particularly onoxious e-mail, Finney supporter Peggy Elliott tells voters, "Taylor considers it an honor that if elected, she will be the 1st openly gay African American Legislator in the United States. If you will go to the www.victoryfund.com website, you will see that they are excited about the same and working strategically to ensure that this candidate wins the election . . . Who would she be representing?" There is also a robo-call uploaded to the Victory Fund blog.
The Fund asked Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, as the titular dead of the state Democratic Party, to denounce Finney’s tactics and ask her to step down as vice-chair of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party. No response from Sebelius, who also didn't respond to gay activists in the recent controversy over her son's prison-themed board game. No surprise.
"What's the matter with Kansas Democrats?" Victory Fund president and CEO Chuck Wolfe asked. "We plan for and expect openly gay candidates will face attacks from right-wing bigots, not Democratic party officials. This is divisive, gutter politics at its worst, and Gail Finney should be ashamed of herself."
Taylot expressed her disappointment to The Wichita Eagle. "I wasn't running on 'Hey, I'm gay,' " she said, adding her campaign "always has been about the issues."
Earlier this year, Connecticut State Rep. Jason Bartlett became the first openly gay black state legislator in the nation.
