Virginia’s Sodomy Ban Helps Make Ken Cuccinelli And His Anti-Gay Beliefs A Laughingstock

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Last week, Virginia’s attorney general and Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli raised a little stir when he launched a website to defend his state’s “crimes against nature” anti-sodomy law.

“Cooch,” as he’s known, argues that this law will protect minors from sexual predators, claiming that 90 “sexual predators” could be freed if the law, which has been ruled unconstitutional, isn’t enforced. Taking on sodomy is just part of the Republican’s arcane social agenda. He’s compared abortion to slavery and needed to have a bare breast covered on Virginia’s state seal.

Republicans say that Cuccinelli’s Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, hasn’t taken a position on the actual law, but through spokesman Josh Schwerin called for the state’s laws to be updated.

“As he admitted as recently as 2009, Ken Cuccinelli is one of the only elected officials in America who believes that being gay should result in criminal prosecution and jail time. Cuccinelli’s refusal to support a mainstream legislative update to Virginia laws reflects his extreme agenda and uncompromising approach,” Schwerin added.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell dissected the law last week in the clip above, pointing out that it would make anything other than genital-to-genital sex a felony, even for married couples.

And on Monday, the story hit the big time: ABC’s The View.


Cuccinelli is becoming a national laughingstock because his embrace of the anti-sodomy law is backed up by his dated anti-gay views, which he stood by in a debate against McAuliffe last Saturday.

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven’t changed,” he said.

This view was articulated in 2008 when Cuccinelli said, “When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.”

When The View’s audience heard this, they laughed.

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