It's long been observed that homophobes seem to spend more time thinking about gay sex than most gay people do, and in much more graphic detail.
Now the defenders of "traditional values" crowd has released a home mailer designed to put pressure on New York state senator Mark Grisanti (R-Buffalo) for voting in favor of New York's marriage equality law last summer. And, well, their tactic for upholding their brand of "good Christian morality" is a little strange, in my opinion.
Politico:
A blistering piece attacking a Republican New York state senator who was the decisive vote in the state's historic gay marriage legislation last year has been circulating over email - accusing him of being a "political whore" and asking "how far will a politician go to get in your pants?"
The piece, which appears as an attachment as if it's a direct mail piece but so far hasn't been reported as landing in in-boxes, says it was paid for by the Committee to Save the Erie County Republican Party. A Google search revealed nothing about the committee, and it wasn't immediately clear who is sponsoring the group.
Now, I'm no prude. But I have to say, I would be a little taken aback by anyone sending me this mail. I'm going to include it after the fold, out of deference that people may be reading this at work, and frankly I would classify this as NSFW (Not Safe For Work).
Yea Gods. Leave it to the traditional Christian values crowd to "defend moral values" by sending voters unsolicited soft-core gay porn.
How many hours do you think they spend on photo research?
Was Porno Pete a campaign consultant?
4:26 PM PT: Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed is on the case of who's responsible for this:
Buffalo-area bloggers and writers have been commenting about the anti-Grisanti machinations of "The Committee to Save the Eric County Republican Party" for a few months now, with multiple people connecting the "committee" to Matthew Ricchiazzi, a Cornell University graduate who ran a failed campaign for Buffalo mayor. One post refers to his "bizarro politics" while another in August mentioned "the pornographic mailer" he was preparing.
BuzzFeed has reached out to Ricchiazzi, asking if he was responsible for developing the mailer and if the prepared mailer was actually sent to homes in Grisanti's district. He did not immediately respond to email or Facebook messages seeking comment.
Paging Mr. Ricchiazzi. This is a national story now, I'm sure you're anxious to take credit if it's your handiwork!!