By Travis Pillow
One might be inclined to say, “Yes, homo mayor!”
On Friday, a recount confirmed that Gainesville citizens have elected Craig Lowe to be the next mayor of Gainesville. The runoff was tight – ultimately decided by just 42 votes, with a higher turnout than the general election. The student support Lowe cultivated clearly helped make his historic victory possible.
In an impromptu sidewalk press conference on election night, Lowe said negative campaigning, which he studiously tried to avoid, helped his Tea Party-backed opponent, Don Marsh, overcome much of his general election deficit.
“There was definitely homophobia and prejudice injected into the campaign,” he said, calling this the dirtiest race he’d ever seen in Gainesville.
Marsh found himself a handy foil this weekend, when Westboro Baptist Church arrived to tell Gainesville that “God hates fags.” In a blog post, Marsh condemned “The REAL Haters,” who ” rub salt in the wounds of the very people God has commanded us to heal and to whom we should show compassion.”
While the post was clearly intended to make Marsh look a bit more gay-friendly, his language likens homosexuality to a disease that must be cured, which is the basis for the “ex-gay” movement long associated with Pastor Rick Warren. In this line of thinking, God commands us to “heal” members of the LGBTQ community, not to love them as they are.
Like the anti-”big government” Tea Partiers who rely on public assistance, some people prefer to fixate on “healing” the perceived sins of others. As Jesus once said, “Hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves (from Matthew 23:13, King James version).”
Lowe pointed out on election night that a city government can’t run on negativity. He also said Gainesville politics works best when students get involved. Hopefully this town can get past this ugliness and start focusing on the ways we can help the city develop a transportation infrastructure that doesn’t rely on cars, clean up our local Superfund site, care for the homeless, and grapple with budget problems that won’t disappear on their own.
The more students engage with local government, the less say haters or hypocrites will have in the future of this city.
Tags: Gainesville • local elections