Buck McKeon's Gay Problem

left to right: Eric Cantor, random GOP doofus, shady right-wing gay activist Paul Morabito

A devout Mormon and a reflexive old-fashioned bigot, Buck McKeon is a classic anti-gay ranter and raver. He donated his own money and campaign money to end marriage equality in California and he uses his perch as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee to denigrate America's LGBT fighting men and women and to try to make their lives more miserable with his widely repudiated and obsolete notions from the distant past. But his deranged homophobia-- in a moderate suburban L.A. County district-- has taken another twist, one that is never far from the surface of all things McKeon-related: corruption.

Last month we introduced shady gay war industries lobbyist Paul Morabito into the McKeon narrative. McKeon and Morabito, a former board member of a national gay activist group, GLAAD, went out for lunch and McKeon illegally solicited a bribe from Morabito for his wife's Assembly campaign. McKeon has been asking war contractors and arms makers to funnel money into his household by donating to his wife. It's blatant-- no other state legislative candidates have been getting these kinds of large bribes from major arms makers-- and it's illegal. McKeon is also officially under investigation by the House Ethics Committee but his serial flouting of election law should bring him under the purview of more serious law enforcement. But there's also the sheer hypocrisy of McKeon taking bribes from Morabito. McKeon has the worst record on LGBT equality of any California Member of Congress. He voted for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, a constitutional ban on marriage equality, a ban LGBT adoptions in the District of Columbia. He voted against the repeal of DADT, the 2009 hate crimes bill, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He has a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign. Last year, he tried to write language into the National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting military chaplains from officiating same-sex weddings on federal property, even after the repeal of DADT. Defeating him has been a priority on the Act Blue Worst Homophobes in Congress page. So it might not have seemed all that odd that McKeon, back in 1992, said:

"I think that, politically in this district, taking money from gays is just not a smart thing to do."

Is that because he thinks his constituents are more bigoted, small-minded and deranged than he is? Back then he returned money that was donated to his campaign by the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay advocacy group. An independent candidate running against him at the time, Rick Pamplin, who supported equality, pointed out McKeon's hypocrisy in accepting the cash when he thought no one would notice it and then giving it back when someone did.

"It was the most crass, insincere form of political manipulation I've ever seen," Pamplin said. Homosexual Republicans who regarded McKeon as an ally may have made the difference in his 705-vote primary victory over Assemblyman Phillip D. Wyman and four others, he added.

"Once he won the primary, he changed his position," said Pamplin... "He returned their money; he stabbed them in the back."

So here we are, exactly 20 years later and McKeon-- as homophobic and bigoted as ever-- is illegally soliciting money money from an openly gay activist who works as a lobbyist for his wife's campaign. McKeon's campaign refuses to discuss any of the mounting bribery allegations against him and specifically will not comment on the money he took from Morabito (a major Eric Cantor donor and real estate scam artist and con man)-- or are they planning to return that after the June 5th primary too? 'Til then, this is on the public record: