Bob McDonnell Used to Think that Feminists and Homosexuals Were Scary

Bob McDonnell is currently running as the GOP candidate for Governor in Virginia.  His current campaign literature talks about how he's worked hard to lower taxes and enact "tough on crime" policies.  What they don't tell you is that before he became a politician, he was a student at Regent University (founded by Pat Robertson), and that he wrote a thesis arguing that feminists were "real enemies of the traditional family" and that government should favor married heterosexuals over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators."

It's been nearly 20 years since McDonnell wrote the thesis, but one certainly has to wonder: Does he still believe in these radical right-wing policies?

Among the other issues championed by McDonnell in his thesis is covenent marriage (which makes it harder to all couples to obtain divorces), and bans on contraception for unmarried people (McDonnell himself referred to a Supreme Court decision in the 1970s legalizing contraception as "illogical").

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McDonnell also argued that public schools should teach Judeo-Christian values, and that religion should influence more avenues of government.  "Leaders must correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state," McDonnell wrote.  "Historically, the religious liberty guarantees of the First Amendment were intended to prevent government encroachment upon the free church, not eliminate the impact of religion on society."

Interestingly enough, in his current campaign for Governor, McDonnell is trying to water down some of his rather conservative positions - whether they were questioning if LGBT people could serve as public officials, or saying that working women harmed their families.  Why the cover up?  Because it's a whole lot easier to get elected if people don't think you're anti-woman, anti-gay, and a proponent of the type of policies that Pat "The U.S. deserved 9/11 because of tolerance of homosexuality" Robertson supports.

As one Democrat in Virginia put it, according to The News Leader, "There is a just a massive effort under way to rebrand Bob McDonnell, and his whole legislative career speaks otherwise.  The voters have a right to know who these candidates really are."

It may have been 20 years since Bob McDonnell first penned these ideas down on paper.  But if he plans to legislate any of these, he might as well have written them yesterday.  Virginians deserve to know whether they've got someone who is anti-LGBT and anti-women's rights on their ballot this fall.