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Neal is doing a great job of marginalizing himself by aligning with NYC's gay-elite scene. He doesn't have to make an issue of is sex life, nor do the millions of Tarheel voters who value their traditions, not the least of which is family over everthing, as opposed to someone like Neal who sill dump his wife for a new lover and proudly claim in a magazine "I've been with him for five years." Talk about tradition!

But what is saddest about Neal is that his senate candidacy brings out the best in those who find bliss in the vulgar:

*So come on, everyone in North Carolina: Please vote for Jim Neal and help kill Jesse Helms! Better he goes than Joan Fontaine.*

And I can't help but notice the google ads around stories about Neal in these publications. Great, classy stuff.

And how about this article, the first Michael Musto article linked to below the piece on Neal:

*You happen to get that very taste of crass at two, count 'em two, weekly events these days: XES's Ass Circus Thursdays, where a young lady recently snuck in, bared her breasts, and startlingly came in second (the drunken audience probably thought they were butt cheeks), and Ass Wednesdays at Urge, with drag MC Rajene leading the parade of guys dropping trou for cash prizes, with no love jugs for miles. Two weeks ago, a guy there begged me to cheer for his boyfriend's fleshy goods as the beau bravely took the stage. But his heinie turned out to look like a Yahoo map of Sherwood Forest! "It's so hairy!" declared my new friend in horror. "Wait, you've never seen it before?" I wondered, confused. "Not in the light!" he moaned, looking for a vomit bag.*

Now I don't want to compare homosexuality to things of the ass, lest Matt Comer goes on a multi-year rampage, but for *crass* sake guys, give the rest of us a break.

Note to Neal: Please start making fun of Liz Dole's sex life or body parts. That will get you real far with the people you are asking to vote in your favor in the general.

Comment above, second sentence should be "will dump."

To clarify, quote in bold is from the Village Voice article.

Or am I just over-reacting. Probably. I mean, they're just having a laugh, right?* Mark

Not really! The country is going to hell in a hatbox and some fools want to talk about strange body parts. The folks that I hang with like Willie Nelson have fiqure out that only idiots and fools live in a dream world.

Buy Gold Mark and have the last laugh!

Jeff: I like how conservatives use terms like "NYC gay elite" when they really mean "liberal, dirty sodomite."

I like Connie Mack's response to Jeff: "The country is going to hell in a hatbox and some fools want to talk about strange body parts."

As for Binker's original point... I think I'm leaning toward agreeing with you. Don't pin it all on Neal though; we should expect the Village Voice to be full of stereotypes about the South.

Matt: You can't possibly know what I mean. Let me clue you in.

I mean what I say, and I said "NYC gay elite." If I felt like saying, or implying, your interpretation I would. But I didn't.

Re: CMjr: He has proven time and again he is too dense to understand subtlety. Period.

OMG. Binker's lost his sense of humor. Send out a search party!

(NB: don't read NY-based news articles without the NY shield for funny firmly in place. It's a new world out there, Goldie.)

I do admit that my New York humor filter is not in place.

That said: I think what bugs me about this is that Jim Neal is a candidate who has said, essentially, he doesn't want to campaign as "the gay" candidate to anyone who would listen inside the state of North Carolina. Outside NC, however, every time I see him quoted he's talking about being gay. I don't know whether that's his doing or the doing of the folks he's talking to.

That, and funny is funny, even when I don't get the joke. But complete misstatements of fact are not funny to me, particularly when one is supposedly a serious candidate for national political office.

Of course, I can't speak for Neal or the campaign, but, on a personal note, I think Neal really is trying to run as "a candidate" not "the gay candidate." I think it is really hard to do that in many places across the country, not just North Carolina. It would help if we could get people to realize that being gay is just one part of a person. Neal may be gay, but his positions are true Democratic and progressive principles.

We've seen where we've gotten with M.I.A. Dole (that would be, no where). It is time for a change.

What a silly line of reasoning.

You've met with Neal. Did you talk with him about being gay, and if so, did he bring it up or did you?

When the subject comes up, he responds directly and clearly, but I've never seen him bring it up except in a one on one conversation where he wanted the person he was engaging to understand that he was in fact gay, just so the person would know.

Jim Neal is the straightest gay guy you'll ever meet. It's the vast (left and right) media circus turns this into drama, not him.

When I first met with him, it was I who brought it up. I've talked to a couple of my colleagues in state, who also said they were the ones to broach the topic.

Look...this shouldn't be more than it is. But I'm not thinking we should ignore it, either.

Are you suggesting that he shouldn't answer questions about his sexual orientation or that he shouldn't grant interviews to gay journalists? It seems to me that Mr Neal just answered the questions he was asked.

I agree that journalists are more interested in this than voters. I've been to a couple of his campaign events and I've never heard anyone in the audience ask about his sexual orientation. The questions tend to be about things that matter, such as the economy, Iraq, immigration, and health care.

I voted for Elizabeth Dole in 2002 and I live in Kay Hagan's state senate district, but Jim Neal will get my vote this year.

Re: CMjr: He has proven time and again he is too dense to understand subtlety. Period.*Jeffrey Sykes

It appears that Mr Sykes styles himself as a elite secret cult goat worshiper that only Gay Republicans can understand? No doubt humor and a strong IQ is not his strong point in Republican evolutionary monkey politics....

It's always bad news when someone defines themselves by who they sleep with or feels it necessary to make sure others know.

Neal doesn't need to hide who he is, but I agree with Jeff and Mark that if part of his strategy is to align himself with a group based on sexual identity, that is a losing proposition. Straight candidates don't do that, they talk about the issues. Neal's sexuality shouldn't be an issue- unless he intends to make it one. Why he would want to do that is foreign to me.

He can't tell the voters here that his sexuality shouldn't matter while he goes to New York and tries to garner support because of his sexuality. That's kind of dishonest and hypocritical.

Nobody runs as the "straight" candidate, nor should anyone run as the "gay" candidate. Stick to the issues.

I don't know what others here are suggesting, but what I am suggesting is this:

* It is untrue to say that Neal has not been asked by NC local journalists about his being gay or that the issue has been skirted by the NC press.

* It was wrong - but maybe a joke - to suggest there were no Jews in NC during the times Helms was growing up.

* It was poor form on the part of the voice to paint NC as a place where all people are afraid to address topics of sexuality and/or religiously monolithic.

* There is something of a mixed message being sent by way of Neal telling local journalists that he doesn't want to make himself "the gay" candidate and then having that be the primary topic of conversation for his transactions with journalists outside the state.

He can't tell the voters here that his sexuality shouldn't matter while he goes to New York and tries to garner support because of his sexuality. That's kind of dishonest and hypocritical.*Samuel Spagnola

Sure he can! It's no difference than a Republican Candiate in North Carolina bashing Gays and than ending up in a Police line-up in New York City for crusing Gay Bars without a licence.

Nobody runs as the "straight" candidate, nor should anyone run as the "gay" candidate. Stick to the issues. *Samuel Spagnola

Are suggesting that all political candiates become transgender in their quest for office?

By the way Sam! Neal is the only State wide candiate in this state, besides a democrat congressional candiate that is demanding that the Blackwater Group leave this state! When can we expect you to stick to this issue and demand that they leave without their clothes?

"It's always bad news when someone defines themselves by who they sleep with or feels it necessary to make sure others know." * Sam

No, Sam... It is always bad news when others attempt to take away the rights of others based simply on who they are, or who they love. And before the modern LGBT rights movement, it was bad that others sought to confine LGBT people in mental hospitals or prisons, based simply on who they were or who they loved. And, it is always bad when people are not allowed to live their lives with honesty and integrity and with a chance of a stable, loving relationship and family.

"Neal doesn't need to hide who he is, but I agree with Jeff and Mark that if part of his strategy is to align himself with a group based on sexual identity, that is a losing proposition." *Sam

Sam, you've already asked him to be in the closet, just as you've said the same thing to me many times: Paraphrased: "You shouldn't identify part of yourself with how you love someone."

"Straight candidates don't do that, they talk about the issues." *Sam

Sam, straight candidates do it all the time. Neal hasn't put anything about his family on his website, probably for good reason. Every straight candidate I've ever known to run, who also has a family, doesn't think twice about having his family publicly known.

"Neal's sexuality shouldn't be an issue- unless he intends to make it one. Why he would want to do that is foreign to me." *Sam

Neal hasn't made his sexuality an issue, but he hasn't lied when it has been brought up either.

"He can't tell the voters here that his sexuality shouldn't matter while he goes to New York and tries to garner support because of his sexuality. That's kind of dishonest and hypocritical." *Sam

Neal knows that other LGBT people are going to support him, specifically because we know that many straight politicians and candidates won't. Of course he is going to go after our votes and money. He'd be dumb candidate if he didn't.

"Nobody runs as the "straight" candidate, nor should anyone run as the "gay" candidate. Stick to the issues." *Sam

Again, Neal isn't running as the gay candidate, but I beg to differ on your "nobody runs as the 'straight' candidate" assertion. Of course they do! When they trot out their family or when they stand up for "traditional values" (read: "discrimination against gays in every sector of society"), they are running as the "straight" candidate.

*When they trot out their family or when they stand up for "traditional values" (read: "discrimination against gays in every sector of society"), they are running as the "straight" candidate.* MHC

Matt: I'm not going to get real deep into this with you today, but if you cannot see the fallacy of your above statement, and how people who are not gay view that as twisted, distorted logic, then you are never going to achieve your goals.

If you think that *gay* will become normal by demonizing *tradition*, then you are sadly mistaken.

I want someone to give me a reason not to vote for Liz Dole. I could examine Jim Neal as a candidate outside of his chosen lifestyle, but not when he has fund raisers in NYC with members of the "gay elite" and gives interviews with commentators who make a mockery out of my state, its traditions and its values.

Why would I vote for Jim Neal if he is going to prostrate himself before gay special interest groups to the detriment of my own world view?

Neal, and his supporters, need to understand that we want a senator who represents us and stand for what we stand for. Not a 21st Century version of Terry Sanford.

I want someone to give me a reason not to vote for Liz Dole.* Jeffery

Simple! She supported the Patriot Act and a confirmed prowar neo-con unconstitutional Republican. So Jeffery! Why do you hate America and the Bill of
Rights and love the Blackwater group as your savior in North Carolina?