And How Many Homosexuals Find Themselves Wanting To Stone This Guy?

Gay state rep candidate opposes same-sex marriage

This is just plain oddball: a gay Republican who is opposed to gay marriage. That sounds almost unbelievable, and it reminds me of the Chappelle Show skit where Chappelle plays a blind black man who heads the KKK, chanting, "White power!"

Is he genuine or just trying to stand out in a crowded race?

As stage-managed political events go, the one at the Massachusetts Republican Party nominating convention back on April 29 was a classic. A hundred down-ticket Republican candidates paraded down the side aisles of Lowell's Tsongas Arena, two streams of waving, fist-pumping foot soldiers striding to the familiar pounding of the Rocky III anthem "Eye of the Tiger" as an audience of GOP faithful cheered them on from their seats. But as they amassed onstage, the contenders became a waving, grinning blur of mostly middle-aged white men in dark suits, one nearly indistinguishable from the next. Just one candidate managed to stand out in the bland throng: The six-foot-four 24-year-old holding aloft the red, white and blue campaign placard that read "Aaron Maloy for State Rep." It was a clever way to make the most of an otherwise empty, feel-good gesture at an event that was staged largely as a coming out party for gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey.

There is no doubt that Aaron Maloy knows how to separate himself from the pack. In the crowded race to succeed retiring Republican state Rep. Shirley Gomes in the Fourth Barnstable District, the Orleans Republican is the youngest of the six candidates vying for the seat and the only political newcomer in the bunch. But he is also the only candidate who is unequivocally opposed to same-sex marriage. Oh, and he's openly gay.

Maloy isn't the only gay candidate in the race; so, too, are Democrats Sarah Peake, a Provincetown selectwoman, and Ray Gottwald, a member of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates (they're competing in a three-way September primary with Chatham Selectman Ron Bergstrom). But his position on the marriage issue has brought him a good deal of attention, much of it negative. Many observers, it seems, are unable to fathom the idea of an openly gay man who is opposed to letting same-sex couples legally marry; Maloy, for instance, has generated considerable discussion on the blog Cape Politics at CapeCodToday.com. Said one poster with the handle "capecod_mom" of Maloy back in June: "I thought that he was just a conservative who was using gay marriage as his one 'stand' to try and differentiate himself. Finding out that he is actually gay is mind boggling." CapeCodToday.com editor Walter Brooks went so far as to dub Maloy "Phyllis Schlafly in drag." Brooks contends that running as an openly gay man in the Fourth Barnstable -- which encompasses Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Chatham and Harwich -- is a huge asset for Maloy. But what is not to Maloy’s advantage, Brooks quickly adds, is for the candidate "to appear like the hypocrite he is by being against same-sex marriage while he's a gay person himself."