When The Washington Times announced it would be laying off 40 percent of the staff, reports of the move stated that the paper desired to focus on its “core strengths,” which included “cultural coverage based on traditional values.” Apparently, that includes the continuity of the paper's relentless anti-gay crusade.

Readers of this site are certainly familiar with The Washington Times' history of anti-gay rhetoric. This is, after all, a paper that repeatedly warned of a gay “assault upon traditional norms and values” and whose former editor-in-chief defended the ban on gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military by arguing that it prevents violence against “a randy gay caballero” who “starts making eyes at a straight.” They use scare quotes around “partners” and gay “marriage,” a practice that was reportedly banned by former editor John Solomon, but was quickly reinstated upon his departure from the paper.

Most recently, The Washington Times has been waging an anti-gay war on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, an openly gay former educator who has worked tirelessly to increase awareness of gay and lesbian issues in the education system. A gay man responsible for education policy focused on keeping kids safe? Obviously, the Times could not let this stand. So, they've invested incredible interest and editorial page space to smearing Jennings as an “extremist” who promoted a “bizarre sexual agenda” and supports “homosexual pedophiles” who prey on children.

In its most recent Jennings attack, The Washington Times dubbed Jennings “Obama's buggery czar,” attempted to link him to NAMBLA, and accused Jennings of promoting relationships between children and “homosexual pedophiles.” Media Matters has extensively documented the lengths to which the paper has gone to distort Jennings' past in what appears to be a less-than-subtle attempt to play on small-minded fears that gay men and women prey on children that they could then recruit to their homosexual lifestyle. And, despite the massive shake-ups at the flailing paper, its obsessive focus on Jennings remains undeterred. I, for one, am not surprised that one of the Times' “core strengths” on which the paper will focus is gay bashing.