A gay couple we used to hang out with were archly conservative, and fell pretty much in line with whatever FOX "News" had as their daily outrage, and the talking points. But they'd assure me that they were fiscal conservatives, but socially more liberal. Which sounds good in theory, but is another in practice. Because the GOP has shown very little propensity for actual fiscal conservatism. [story continues below]
Despite my lack of understanding, gay conservatives do exist. I've argued with a few, particularly GOProud and its Nevada affiliate RightPride. The latter seems to have faded away, and GOProud has lost its original leaders, got booted from CPAC, and has very, very little currency in the GOP itself. And now, one of those leaders has left the Republican Party itself, and rather publically.
Road to redemption? Publicity stunt? Not sure. And I'm not sure the gay community will take him, nor the right wing base care that he's gone.
Why wouldn't the gay community take him? They have their noses up in the air and they are too good to take him?
ReplyDeleteAs far as being gay and a Republican, most people have more than 1 issue. There are issues I suppose I could agree with Democrats but I have more than 1 issue and the democrats don't support me on hardly anything.
I do agree with you that the country club Republicans do not represent me, as a conservative. They are not fiscally conservative and have no social values- their values depend on which way the political wind is blowing.
Ken Mehlman, a former head of the RNC ran that organization during the worst of the anti-gay marriage amendments that were once the GOP rage. Karl Rove used them to turn out hard-core social conservatives, and Ken Mehlman played along. . .all the while being secretly gay. He's on a mission of redemption these days, but it will be a long time--if ever--that politically attuned gay people forgive him. Same thing with Jimmy. He's only recently embraced marriage equality (probably because he'd like to marry his partner), and has done great harm to gay rights, politically. He's got huge scales to try to balance.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the analog would be for you, maybe a person who presented himself as a down-the-line conservative, who was secretly working to undermine your causes. And then he does a 180 and wants to be accepted. You probably wouldn't take that well, would you?
And now a little primer about "gay as an issue." Issues to me are things like gun rights, abortion, ecology, the economy, things like that. Being gay to me isn't an issue, it's an integral part of who I am. . .not ALL that I am, but inseparatable from who I am as a person. I left the GOP in 1992 because GHWB didn't speak out against Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan's horrific anti-gay rhetoric. I didn't see this as being single issue. I saw this as incompatible with my life.