Cranston, Rhode Island Mayor Stephen Laffey, currently challenging Senator Lincoln Chafee for the Republican Senate nomination, is being criticized for anti-gay columns he wrote in a Bowdoin College paper in the 80's, columns he describes as “sophomoric political satire.”
Laffey now says he regrets the statements he made in the Bowdoin Patriot, which included this assessment of gays:
“I have never once seen a happy homosexual. This is not to say there aren't any; I simply haven't seen one in my lifetime. Maybe they are all in the closet. All the homosexuals I've seen are sickly and decrepit, their eyes devoid of life.”
And comments on then fresh-on-the-scene Culture Club frontman Boy George:
“And how about this humanoid (I'd hesitate to say person, and I would never use the word MAN) Boy George. It wears girl's clothes and puts on makeup. When I hear it sing, ‘Do you really want to hurt me, do you really want to make me cry,' I say to myself, YES, I want to punch your lights out, pal, and break your ribs. I say let's get those pinkos out of the music business and replace them with some tough conservatives.”
Laffey told the Associated Press: “Do I regret some of these things? Sure. But at the time, we were just having fun. We thought it was funny.”
Chafee and Laffey, who are running neck-and-neck in the primary race, recently held their final debate in Cranston, where they squared off on, among other things, the topic of gay marriage and gay rights.
Via AP: “Chafee, who supports same-sex marriage, cited his support of legislation in Washington to strengthen gay rights. Laffey said he supports civil unions but not same-sex marriage. In a recent ad, he tells voters that his brother died of AIDS, but he described him as recently as this month as a ‘promiscuous homosexual.' When asked about that, Laffey said he had a difficult relationship with his brother, but they reconciled before his death.”
