By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
It’s still a little rare that you see a politician be such a hateful jerk — and rarer for that politician to be from Chester County.
But here we have West Chester’s Bill McSwain — a gubernatorial candidate — bringing shame to the other 550,000 residents of our county by trashing middle school kids in a Tweet that went viral, until he deleted it, knowing how badly he screwed up.
What did he do? He took a shot at the West Chester Area School District’s Fugett Middle School Gender-Sexuality Alliance — a safe space for teens to figure stuff out without being judged by jerks — jerks like McSwain.
“This ends when I’m governor,” he Tweeted, before deleting it some time later.
Fortunately for all of us, he has only a slightly better chance of being elected as Republican for governor than I do — and I’m a registered Democrat not running for any office. But his needlessly judgmental behavior is a stain on all of us, especially dragging our kids into a race to the bottom to see who can become the meanest, most irrational asshole — apparently a requirement now to run for office as a Republican.
These kids, frankly, are acting more like adults, showing compassion, talking though difficult issues of gender and sexuality, while bullies like McSwain are willing to do anything to get support from the emotionally-stunted, cruelty-addicted MAGA base. That base dictates everything now in the Republican Party, from issues of abortion, sexuality, open racism and how Vladimir Putin is what a real leader looks like (the murder of countless innocent women in children in Ukraine, notwithstanding).
There just has to be a point where we all ask: What the F is wrong with these people?
Obsessing over transgender kids and their parents, gay kids and what women do with their bodies isn’t just lousy politics (the vast majority of people in this country take a “live and let live” attitude when it comes to adults and sex), it’s kind of deeply screwed up.
Despite what these zealots claim — most of whom are deeply in need of counseling — sexual orientation/gender identity isn’t a choice, it’s how people are born.
But ignorance — and misinformation — drives some to think that somehow if other kids can be gay or transgender, it will somehow make your kids that way. Some even refer to these kids as “mentally ill.” Talk about projection.
I remember when running for State Representative in 2004, I called for — at minimum — civil unions to give gay couples the same rights as married “straight” people. I recall someone claiming it would allow people to be “recruited.”
Like someone would burst into my home and convert me and steal me away from my wife.
To the great relief of gay men throughout the area, I am straight and married. It’s how I was born. I know who I am and I’m not threatened by the mere existence of those with different sexual orientations or gender identities. I’m me, you be you — tell me the right pronoun to use and we’re good. You know, how grownups deal with these sort of issues.
But now we have an entire party being dominated by people with clear developmental and emotional issues. Instead of getting the counseling they so sorely need, they’re taking out their issues on the rest of us.
We have Republicans in other states passing draconian laws outlawing treatment for transgender youth — and outlawing they and their parents from moving out of state. There are similar laws about abortion and sexual orientation being jammed through elsewhere.
Since when is any of this their business?
And why does anyone care?
No one is making you gay. I suspect way too many of these zealots happen to be a closeted people who are so frustrated that they have to lash out at those with enough courage to live their truth.
The point is cruelty and domination.
This isn’t about some policy disagreement, this is about some crazed minority of our population demanding everyone else conforming to their twisted sense of morality.
And by buying into the race to the morality bottom, Bill McShane is bringing shame on all of us in Chester County.
We are better than that.
