The Log Cabin Republicans are calling on Representative Scott Peters (D., Calif.) to apologize for a post on his campaign website that used a pejorative term for his Republican challenger, Carl DeMaio, who is gay.
The group takes issue with a post by Democratic political consultant and gay-rights activist John Aravosis on Peters’s website. After quoting DeMaio saying he feels more intolerance and hostility from the LGBT community for being Republican than from social conservatives for being gay, Aravosis snarks, “Oh Mary, it’s so hard to be you.”
“There is no doubt that if the roles were reversed and a straight Republican congressman promoted content on his website calling his gay Democratic opponent a ‘Mary,’ there would be no end to the outrage from the left,” Log Cabin Republicans executive director Gregory T. Angelo said in a statement. “Of course, when a Democrat does it, no one raises an eyebrow — but we’re not going to let this slide.”
The race in California’s 52nd district is expected to be one of the most hotly contested House races this fall. The Cook Political Report currently rates it a “Democratic Toss Up,” and Peters defeated Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray by less than three percentage points last election.
In 2012, DeMaio narrowly lost the race for San Diego’s mayorship to Democrat Bob Filner, who has since resigned amid a series of sexual-harassment allegations.