Virginia’s Republican-led House has rejected the judicial nomination of an openly gay prosecutor after opponents said he would push an activist agenda. Tracy Thorne-Begland, a former Navy officer and fighter pilot, failed to gain the necessary majority when lawmakers voted 33-to-31 to support him, with 10 abstaining. Thorne-Begland was the only candidate among more than three dozen judicial nominees to be rejected. Two decades ago, Thorne-Begland appeared on ABC’s “Nightline” and disclosed his sexual orientation in a challenge to the military’s ban on openly LGBTQ servicemembers. Republicans have accused him of “homosexual advocacy” and said his sexual orientation would render him unable to be impartial. Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring denounced the vote.

Michael Herring: “Where’s the empirical evidence that once a gay person puts on a robe, he or she advances this gay agenda? I don’t even know what a gay agenda is.”