Dear gay Republicans,
Rick Santorum's surge and near-win in Iowa should be a wake-up call: your party hates you.
Let's put economic and other issues aside for a moment; we can have a spirited debate about the backward GOP approach to taxes, the environment, and foreign policy another time. I don't understand how you can look beyond the fact that a major portion of your party's fundamental beliefs are that you are not equal.
This isn't a minor issue within your party. The Republican Party platform calls for amending the United States Constitution to discriminate against you. Party officials actually want to use our country's foundational document, which grants and extends rights and freedoms to people, to limit yours. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Santorum's come-from-behind, surprise second-place finish is creating quite a mess in the primary. Not only does he have a long history of anti-gay remarks, but his campaign is centered around coded homophobia. When he is asked a question about most issues, he brings it back to the family. Even the poor economy he manages to blame on the breakdown of the "traditional family." And when he talks about needing to return to our "traditional family," he's speaking to fellow homophobes about how scary us gays are. Because he doesn't actually care about families; if he did, he'd support adoptions by LGBT couples, marriage rights for same-sex couples who already have children, and all manner of legal rights to parents of children in LGBT relationships that are not now afforded them, including hospital visitation rights, access to survivors benefits for social security, and a host of other necessary protections for the family. No, when he says "family," he means straight families, and all of his supporters know that.
Your party has, as one of its major leading presidential candidates, a person who doesn't think you should be able to serve openly in the military, who doesn't believe that you can create a loving family, who thinks that your committed relationships are destroying the moral fabric of America. Your party has thrown you in the deviant pile. Your party has labeled you a sexual predator. Your party is afraid of you and does not incorporate your voice or believe in your dignity.
This fact isn't a small debate within your party. It is not some misguided homophobes who are simply unaware of the LGBT community and all its accomplishments, struggles, and contributions, speaking out of turn and out of step with the platform. This is your party's platform. They don't like you, they don't want you, and they want to strip you of your rights and make you and your core personhood illegal, and Santorum exemplifies it. Even though he will almost certainly never be president, your party elevates him to the highest levels. I'm sorry that this has to be pointed out so bluntly.
And sadly, even so-called "moderates" like Romney have been forced to mimic Santorum on all LGBT issues in order to increase their electability. So when you vote for these guys and actively try to put them in power, you are hurting yourself, you are hurting me, you're hurting every loving LGBT family, and, most importantly, you're hurting America. Hate is not a family value. Hate is not an American value. Hate should not be a Republican value, but it is.
As a gay man, I humbly ask that you withdraw your support from the Republican Party unless and until the homophobic party platform is demonstrably and fully remediated. Bullies cannot serve the people of the United States of America, uphold the Constitution, or embrace you.
Sincerely,
Asher Huey
Follow Asher Huey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AsherHuey
Lincoln Mitchell: Who Cares Who Finished Second in New Hampshire?
Lucas Case: Gay Republicans: Why It's Important to Come Out
Taylor Garrett: Gay Republicans: A Defense
A- Feminists, PETA and similarly extreme elements of the left are successfully caricatured by the right until enough people who agree with basic Democratic principles distance themselves from them.
If the left would just distance itself from these elements and concentrate on a message of basic fairness for everyone, it would trade 2% of the electorate for an additional 20%.
SO the problem isn't Democrats ties to Wall St., or certain Democrats obstruction of Good Legislation for their corporate pay masters benefit.
No.
Gay Republicans create a splinter party that shares the Republican party's economic and political platform but drops the social aspects. With sufficient support for this new third party, the Republican party's ability to successfully get members elected will be crippled. This would force the main Republican party to acknowledge the concerns of that group of their base. They amend their platform as a party, and gay republicans can go back to it knowing that any republicans who continue to campaign on an anti gay platform don't have mainstream support from their party.
I will presume that the author hadn't thought of that, rather than cynically jump to the conclusion that making the GOP even more radically out of the mainstream on GLBT issues so as to hinder its political prospects is his main objective.
I took a class called Sexism and Power in college. I learned about feminism by reading Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. I loved it; I immediately identified as a feminist. As the class went on, we read bell hooks, Catherine MacKinnon, and a variety of Multicultural Feminist literature, and I realized I've been looking at feminism from a rich white woman's perspective! But what if I was a poor disabled black woman? How does feminism change for me? What this highlighted for me, with respect to gay rights, is the multifaceted nature of identity. So who's right - Betty Friedan or Angela Davis? Similarly - Andrew Sullivan or Michael Warner? Is there a right or wrong as this article implies? Feminism changes for every woman. Why can't gay rights change for everyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnTwrnKb61Q
This was all over the Internet immediately following its posting, but the message is timeless and vital to securing our rights and communicating the unfairness of DOMA and in ensuring that Marriage Equality becomes the law of the land. PLEASE forward this link to ANY politician who opposes granting the GLBT community our basic rights as citizens.
They DO hate you.
I simply do not understand.
Willing to compromise your self-respect to join a hateful movement causes me to question your character.
What on Earth do you have to be proud of?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSQSx3OCrXQ&feature=related
VOTE OUT THE GOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
discriminatory
nature of the party line. (Kind of like a rich alcoholic-- they have enough money to never hit bottom and therefore seek treatment).
A wealthy gay Republican is not particularly concerned about the benefits that marriage would bring. They can circumvent some of those obstacles with enough money. They are comfortable, no one bothers or discriminates against them and they fly under the radar and are more interested in the other issues the Republicans represent.
This is not my opinion-- this is what several gay Republican friends tell me when I ask them why they are Republican.
They just take your vote for granted (it is), and then tell you to go lay down in the ditch and keep quiet until the next election.
No, not all GOP candidates hate the gay community. But VIRTUALLY all of them do. And pretty much all the ones who stand a chance at being elected are. Fred Karger doesn't count. He's a joke candidate.
If you really want to change the republican party... Just don't vote. You don't have to change your party affiliation or economic positions. Just send them the message that you refuse to vote for them until they stop using you as bait. Stop letting them take your vote for granted until they focus on the economic issues you support.
They said they would focus on jobs from day one... What they did, however is do nothing but go for the gay community, immigrants and women. Stop enabling them.