Virginia GOP candidate: Spousal rape isn’t a crime if she is ‘wearing a nightie’
By David Edwards
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 10:52 EST
After losing all major statewide races to Democrats for the first time in 24 years, Republicans in Virginia are pushing to replace a moderate GOP congressman with a candidate so conservative that he doesn’t even believe that spousal rape should be a crime.
On Wednesday, Mother Jones pointed out that state Sen. Richard H. “Dick” Black, who is running to take over retiring Rep. Frank Wolf’s seat, had fought against making spousal rape a crime because the woman was “sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie.”
Democrat Shawn Mitchell had uncovered the 2002 video of Black talking about spousal rape for an attack ad during the 2011 campaign for Virginia state Senate.
“I do not know how you could validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape, when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie and so forth,” Black says. “There’s not injuries, there’s no separation or anything.”
The ad notes that between 2002 and 2010, there were 800 reported incidents of spousal rape in Virginia.
In 2001, Black asserted that emergency contraception was “baby pesticide” and he recently compared the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion to the Holocaust.
“When I hear discussions about this, I hear very mild comments about choice and reproductive rights and things of this sort,” Black said in a speech on the 2013 anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling. “But I recall back to the days of Nazi Germany, there was a place called Auschwitz. ”
“You know it’s quite easy — and from where we look back on history, we say, ‘Why didn’t the Germans do something? Why didn’t they rise up? Why didn’t they take action?’” he continued. “But they were helpless before their government just as we are helpless before our government.”
Watch this video from Shawn Mitchell, uploaded in 2011.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/15/virginia-gop-candidate-spousal-rape-isnt-a-crime-if-she-is-wearing-a-nightie/
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Full article posted with the permission of Raw Story
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Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 02:24 PM CST
Republican Congressional hopeful doesn’t think spousal rape should be a crime
State Sen. Richard Black also seems dubious that spousal rape even exists
Katie Mcdonough
Virginia state Sen. Richard Black opposed criminalizing spousal rape when the matter was raised in the Virginia Legislature in 2002 because he believes rape is nearly impossible to define when a couple is “living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie, there’s no injury and so forth or anything.”
He also worried that making it a crime to rape your spouse could result in men experiencing “enormous fear” that their reputations would be damaged if their wives ever falsely accused them of rape.
As Mother Jones‘ Molly Redden reports, Black has abhorrent views on almost every issue you can name. He has also called emergency contraception “baby pesticide,” and introduced the legislation while a member of the state general assembly to allow Virginians to purchase “Choose Life” license plates in order to fund crisis pregnancy centers. As Redden notes, these license plates have raised $223,000 for these anti-choice counseling centers (that regularly lie to women about their reproductive health care options) since first being introduced in 2009. He also appears to be a fan of George Zimmerman.
Black is currently running to replace Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican moderate who is retiring.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/15/republican_congressional_hopeful_doesnt_think_spousal_rape_should_be_a_crime/
