Dick Black (politician)

Richard H. "Dick" Black (born May 15, 1944) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who has served in the Virginia Senate since 2012. Black was previously a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1998 to 2006.

Career

Before running for office, Black was a military prosecutor.^[1] He first held elective office on the Loudoun County Library Board, where in 1997 he authored a policy that blocked pornography on library computers.^[2] To explain why the policy was necessary, he invited a reporter to film him watching rape pornography on a library computer.^[1] Librarians only received one complaint about their computers being used to view pornography - when Black did so.^[1] The policy drew national attention and first amendment litigation struck down the policy, costing the Board $100,000.^[1][3][4]

He was first elected to the Virginia House in a special election in 1997 to succeed Republican Delegate Bill Mims, who had been elected to the Virginia Senate.^[5] During his election campaign, he said that rape in the military was "as predictable as human nature" and asked a reporter: "Think of yourself at 25. Wouldn't you love to have a group of 19-year-old girls under your control, day in, day out?"^[1] Black resigned from the Library Board a few months after being sworn-in.^[6] A "deeply conservative" delegate,^[7] Black became well-known for making inflammatory and controversial statements.^[8]

In 1998, he tried to pass a law to require doctors give anaesthetic to foetuses before late-term abortions and another that "tried to effectively ban gay people from adopting children in Virginia".^[9] In late 2000, in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, Black proposed legislation that would require students to address their teachers as "Ma'am", "Sir", "Mr.", "Miss" or "Mrs.", saying that "The counterculture revolution of the '70s took the war into the classroom. Before that time, public schools were a model of decorum, and then we began this thing we've seen play out at Columbine."^[10] In February 2001, he voted to establish a 24-hour waiting period for women wanting abortions and called emergency contraception "baby pesticide".^[11] In February 2002, Black opposed making marital rape a crime, saying that it was impossible to convict a man "when they're living together, sleeping in the same bed, she's in a nightie, and so forth."^[1] In late 2002 and early 2003, Black opposed erecting a statue of Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas at the Tredegar Iron Works to commemorate Lincoln's visit to Richmond on April 4, 1865, 10 days before his assassination. Black said, "Putting a statue to [Lincoln] there is sort of like putting the Confederate flag at the Lincoln Memorial."^[12]

In July 2003, Black proposed legislation that would prevent unmarried and gay couples from applying for low-interest home mortgages, saying that the state was "spending $90 million to subsidize sodomy and adultery. I just don’t understand why we are taking money away [from worthwhile programs] and supporting a radical homosexual agenda."^[13] Also in 2003, he handed out plastic foetuses to fellow delegates before votes on abortion issues.^[9] He also once remarked that abortion was "a greater evil than segregation or slavery" and in 2005 he authored a bill that would require abortion providers to wrongly tell women that foetuses being aborted after 20 weeks could feel pain.^[1] Also in 2005, he resurrected his legislation that would ban gay people from adopting children, claiming that gay people were more prone to violence, alcoholism, and suicide.^[1] He then amended the bill to require that adoption agencies investigate whether people looking to adopt children were "known to engage in current voluntary homosexual activity".^[1] In February of that year, he urged his constituents to picket Stone Bridge High School for putting on a play about a gay football player, claiming that the school was "being used to promote a homosexual lifestyle." He further claimed that attempts to "encourage homosexual activity, to portray it in a cute or favorable light" could lead to children contracting HIV.^[14] In 2004, he said with regard to Virginia's sodomy law: "If I'm the last person on the face of this Earth to vote against legalizing sodomy, I'll do it."^[15]

He was defeated in his quest for a fifth term by Democrat David Poisson in 2005. Poisson defeated him 53%–47%. Black ran for the Republican nomination in the special election for Virginia's 1st congressional district in October 2007. A convention was held to determine the nominee and Black came fifth, eliminated in the fourth ballot. State Delegate Rob Wittman was picked and went on to win the election.^[16]

Black ran for the State Senate in 2013, in the 13th district to succeed the retiring Republican incumbent Fred Quayle. He moved residence from the 33rd district, believing that the incumbent Democrat, Mark Herring, was too difficult an opponent.^[9] Black narrowly won the primary, taking 3,143 votes (38.83%) to John Stirrup's 3,029 votes (37.42%) and Robert S. Fitzsimmonds' 1,923 votes (23.76%).^[17] In the general election, Black defeated Democrat Shawn Mitchell by 57% to 43%.^[18]

In 2014, Black briefly ran for Virginia's 10th congressional district in the 2014 elections to succeed retiring Republican incumbent Frank Wolf.^[19] He withdrew on January 23, 2 days after declaring his candidacy.^[20] In an interview in January 2014, Black compared same-sex marriage to polygamy and incest, saying that although he opposed polygamy, "at least it functions biologically", adding that it was "just more natural" than homosexuality.^[21]

References

External links

• Senator Dick Black (R-Leesburg) at Richmond Sunlight