WashPost Asks Gay Democratic Virginia Legislator for Help with Story

August 7th, 2006 7:57 AM

In merely the latest in a string of Washington Post stories lamenting how Virginia is somehow chasing gay people out of the state by preserving traditional marriage at the ballot box, reporter Kirstin Downey revealed her quite partisan way of assembling evidence to prove her repetitive liberal thesis:

State Del. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is gay, circulated a Washington Post inquiry seeking people willing to be interviewed on the record about their decisions to move out of Virginia. Two dozen responded; 10 others said they were waiting for the November elections to decide.

The headline of the story is "Feeling Unwelcome, Some Gays Vacate Virginia: November Ballot Ban Helps Fuel Migration." The whole story is told sympathetically from the gay-left point of view, as almost a nudge to encourage gays to escape Virginia. It begins with Edel Quinones of Arlington, and the idea that Arlington is a bastion of Christian conservatism is a knee-slapper. Didn't the Post just get finished highlighting Arlington's gay legislator/athlete?

As usual, Downey's story is stuffed with gay liberals, and the conservative Family Foundation is granted two paragraphs, starting at paragraph 18, right after the gay Log Cabin Republicans.They alone are the ones making the point of how newspapers like the Post distort the debate: "I think it's extremely sad they would leave because of something they were never allowed to do anyway." Virginia hasn't moved dramatically to the right. The gays stand on the left side of the street demanding tradition be overturned, but somehow, the liberal media make it look like the radical changes are being proposed by the traditionalists.

UPDATE: At his PostWatch blog, Christopher Fotos reports on another pro-gay story in the Post religion section on Saturday.