Virginia Delegate: 'Sodomy Is Not a Civil Right'

Virginia Del. Robert Marshall has been on a crusade to prevent an openly gay man from becoming a district judge, and while arguing his case last night on CNN, he uttered this headline-generating quote: “Sodomy is not a civil right.” (CNN pundit Margaret Hoover called the quote "absurd" based on this case.) Marshall argues that gay prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland has a “pattern of behavior” that disqualifies him from the bench, namely “a long history of” being an “aggressive activist for the pro-homosexual agenda.” (The state General Assembly did indeed vote against Thorne-Begland’s bid Tuesday, Politico notes.)

That could create problems were he to be appointed as a judge, Marshall explained, because he could decide to perform gay marriages, which are illegal in Virginia, or show “bias” when ruling on “a bar room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual.” When CNN’s Brooke Baldwin made a comparison, noting that in this day and age blacks and women have many rights previously denied to them, Marshall replied: “Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office they broke. Sodomy is not a civil right and there’s an effort by homosexual lobbyists to equate the two. That’s wrong. It is a pattern of behavior.” (More Robert Marshall stories.)