Recently comedienne Whoopi Goldberg got on her high horse to excoriate Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s GOP nominee for Governor, for his desire to use the state’s anti-sodomy laws to prosecute a 47-year-old pedophile.
Goldberg attacked Cuccinelli saying that he is “in her bedroom” and tried to turn his citing of the law into an anti-homosexual cause célèbre. However, Democrat state attorneys are responsible for 42 percent of cases using this statute.
Goldberg was in high dudgeon during a July 22 broadcast of ABC’s The View attacking Cuccinelli, the state’s current Attorney General, for his supposed anti-gay views. “Why are you in my bedroom? Get out! Get out!” she yelled. She went on, saying, “I don’t remember God saying anything about you coming in my bedroom and telling me what to do. So sir, you’re not going to become the governor if you stay on this track. I’m going to make sure you’re not going to become governor.”
Goldberg is not alone in her off-base attack on Cuccinelli. The fashion magazine Cosmopolitan also had a blog post attacking the AG for wanting to “ban oral and anal sex,” which is a complete distortion of his stance on the matter.
As Goldberg and those like her try to make this issue out to be an anti-homosexual matter, they are ignoring key facts in the case.
Neither Cuccinelli nor anyone in Virginia government is attempting to use the anti-sodomy law against consenting adults of any proclivity. Cucinelli feels that the law is an important way for the state to charge pedophiles with a crime against children. On this Cuccinelli is not alone. As it happens, of the 90 sex offenders prosecuted since 2003 using the anti-sodomy law, 38 (42 percent) were prosecuted by Democratic attorneys. So, this law has been used in a bi-partisan manner.
In the case that brought national attention to the issue, Cuccinelli is attempting to convict a 47-year-old pedophile for soliciting a 17-year-old girl.
As Cuccinelli spokesperson Caroline Gibson says, “This case is not about sexual orientation, but using current law to protect a 17 year-old girl from a 47 year-old sexual predator.”
The law, Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute, was struck down in March by the U.S. Court of Appeals, but a dissenting judge pointed out that the law does not apply to consenting adults and Cuccinelli is only attempting to apply the statute to cases of rape and sexual crimes against minors.
The Virginia Attorney General agrees with the dissenting judge and his support of the law is based on that point. The dissenting judge, Albert Diaz, is a 2009 Obama appointee.
Cuccinelli’s Democrat opponent, former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, has refused to take an official stance on the matter, opting to slam the Republican for ignoring the economy and pushing a “divisive ideological agenda.”
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