A Rancho Mirage, California city
council race has turned ugly with a homophobic mailer targeting the
race's openly gay incumbent.
Scott Hines' successful 2010 campaign
for a seat on the Rancho Mirage City Council was marred with anti-gay
attacks. Opponents mailed flyers and launched robo-calls claiming he
would “infect” the Council with “Palm Springs style”
politics.
Similar attacks surfaced last month as
Hines campaigned to keep his seat.
According to Frontiers
LA, some residents received postcards featuring a shirtless
Hines with the caption “No More 'Fab' Party Guy Scotty.” The
words “'Fab Party Guy Scotty” are lined up vertically to spell
out “fags.”
“Send Hines packing back to Palm
Spring (where he belongs),” the mailer also reads.
The postcard does not include a return
address and nobody has claimed credit for the ad.
Hines, who is raising two children with
his husband Jon, said the image was taken three years ago during a
family vacation and was on his iPhone, which was stolen from his City
Hall office in December.
The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a
group dedicated to electing openly LGBT candidates, denounced the
tactics.
“We stand with Councilman Hines in
solidarity against these egregious campaign tactics that focus on
Hines' sexual orientation – these types of tactics should never be
tolerated for any candidate,” Torey Carter, chief operating officer
for the group, said in a statement. “Councilman Hines has a long
track record of supporting the LGBT community, and we are proud to
have endorsed his re-election campaign.”