"Generally, gay-baiting is the linguistic practice of publicly insinuating, with little or no evidence, that a rival might be gay, without ever using the word 'gay' or 'homosexual.' Successful euphemistic smears include 'San Francisco,' 'weak,' or even 'hairdresser.' The practice has been around since before the Revolutionary War, and recycles the same tropes.... And yet the bait goes on.
"Baiting succeeds because it relies on the kind of bad joke in which many people still take guilty or not-so-guilty pleasure, prompting the defense that critics just need to lighten up. Just last week in Delaware, in the lead-up to Tuesday's GOP primary, consultants employed until recently by Tea Partier and Mama Grizzly Christine O'Donnell ran a television ad in which an announcer asks a person onscreen about O'Donnell's opponent's sexuality: 'Isn't Mike Castle cheating on his wife with a man?' The person onscreen replies with a knowing laugh, 'That's the rumor.' Huh? Is this a joke? What rumor?
***
"And so, without further ado, Slate's taxonomy of American political gay-baits."
A history of political gay-baiting. - By Margaret Wheeler Johnson - Slate Magazine
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