Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993 TAG: 9310130310
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Here you have a distinguished former state attorney general and assembly delegate, now a candidate for Virginia's highest office. And what must Mary Sue Terry put up with?
A slimeball's incredible allegation, heavily publicized around the state, that Terry has had a lesbian relationship.
What is Virginia coming to?
Why did Roanoke's Channel 10 broadcast man-in-the-street interviews Thursday night, asking whether people would vote for Terry if she were a lesbian? Why did her GOP opponent, when asked about the accusation, say in effect, "No comment," instead of condemning the vile nonsense? Why do so many assume this story could affect Terry's candidacy? If it does, what does that say about the electorate?
This story has been converted from the tale of a wild, vengeful and ludicrous smear, concerning a politician's private life, completely devoid of substantiation, perpetrated by a sick man and proven liar - into a tale about Terry herself, about questions raised and the impact on her campaign.
When Richmond television stations led their news reports with the breathlessly announced allegation, they couldn't possibly give sufficient attention to the context that Roanokers, at least, should understand.
The accusation, keep in mind, isn't merely that Terry had a lesbian affair. She is accused of masterminding a massive conspiracy, involving prosecutors and the state medical board, the purpose of which was to exercise a Terry vendetta and railroad an innocent Roanoke psychiatrist because he had counseled his patient to break off the affair.
Give us a break.
Dr. William Gray, the accuser, has just had his license revoked on account of sex abuse of young male patients, most of them drugged, disadvantaged and mentally ill, whom he manipulated to serve his cravings.
Speaking to his own accusers, Gray produced no evidence to back up his bizarre charge against Terry, and conveniently claimed that her mystery lover committed suicide in 1990. (Terry says she knows no one who killed herself in 1990.)
Gray, who says he's getting psychiatric care himself, never mentioned the allegation prior to this week, either to the media or in testimony before courts and the medical board investigating his activities.
The assertion apparently shocked his own attorney, who says he knows of no evidence of improper motives by the attorney general.
Gray is a man who, 15 years ago, was charged with child molestation in California, and agreed to stop practicing there for three years. Whereupon he moved to Virginia, where he has allegedly forced sex on numerous boys in Franklin and Roanoke counties. The state medical board's hearing officer determined that he not only violated professional standards with patients, but committed criminal sexual battery and sodomy.
Gray has lashed out before against prosecutors by making accusations of sexual misconduct. At an earlier medical board hearing, his lawyer reportedly asked a Franklin County investigator if she was having an affair with one of Gray's alleged victims.
Yet this is a man who, on the day of his censure and punishment, could utter a claim about a gubernatorial candidate and have it picked up and repeated prominently across the state. Terry was compelled to deny Gray's assertion as if the contradicting contentions were morally equivalent.
Ominously, this is no isolated incident. Critics tried to tar U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who also is unmarried and childless, as a lesbian. Now the innuendo, formerly spread by hints and jokes and coded campaign discussion of "family values," has come out of the closet against Terry as well. It is an ugly throwback to McCarthyism, which should leave decent, fair-minded Virginians ashamed and outraged.
And what if Terry, her denial notwithstanding, were a lesbian? Would that matter? How should that affect either her performance in office or voters' deliberations? What clearly does matter is that public service can't be expected of good people if they are made to endure such abuse.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB