While conservative bloggers Erick Erickson and Melissa Clouthier were complaining that young people at CPAC were behaving like a bunch of frat boys and "whores," Samuel Martin, the president of the Fordham College Republicans, was thinking about another social issue that's lately troubled the GOP: gay marriage. "It is something that isn't openly discussed, but I would say we generally are either in favor of it, or we see it as an inevitability. Many of us either are gay or have gay friends, and as young Republicans we don't discuss it very often. There are so many other important issues, and our time would be better spent focusing on jobs and the economy," Martin told a New York site, Loquiveri.
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It's not just college students. Martin's comments reflect what's more or less an open secret among the GOP's younger staffers, operatives and professionals. "I think that's exactly what it is," Martin said on Thursday. "I think we see the writing on the wall, and understand that gay marriage, whether we like it or not (and there is a good deal of disagreement on that point) is here to stay." This was even more obvious outside of the Catholic conservative circles on Fordham's campus. "The vast majority of younger Republicans I talk to don't seem too concerned about it. And there are good number that support it," he said.
Says a young GOP political operative: "More people inside the GOP are okay with gay marriage than outsiders and liberals would think. That being said, it'll be a while before a tipping point is reached where they come out and say it. I'm talking more staffers and operatives than electeds. It's something Dems want to fight for, but by and large it's something conservatives don't really care about. Meaning they're libertarian about it but don't want to spend their time fighting about it."
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But that doesn't mean that the party's on a crash course for reckoning with gay marriage. Reconciliation will be a slow-going process. "There's an unspoken truce on gay marriage with younger Republicans, we know it's gradually being legalized anyway, so we don't want to divide ourselves because of it," Martin says. "But also I think younger Republicans, many of us at least, don't want to get in to conflict with the party platform, which is against gay marriage."
By Marin Cogan, GQ
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Gay Marriage & Homosexuality - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Gay Marriage : Pictures, Videos, Breaking News
Washington, New Jersey move toward same-sex marriage - CNN.com
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 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Republicans would burn gays at the stake...It is equal only if it is white and male.
I continue to write a platform that gay-lesbians of America must disarm their opponents. We do that by eliminating them from the equation. We take the fourth "R" out of the equation...remember....reading, writing and arithmetic? Well, add "religion"...cause the schools and the churchs preach hate. Eliminate them from performing same-sex marriages! Remember, the ability to marry individuals is licensed by the State!!! They want separation of church and state at all levels...the separate it...once and for all. This is a civil liberty...NOT a religious right. It was not my choice to be born gay....but it is your choice to be whatever religion you choose...for the latter can be changed with minimal distress, while the former leaves more than scars when attempts to make a gay child straight.
What a cop-out!
Of course there are other important issues. There will always be other important issues. But there is NEVER a wrong time to stand up for human dignity and civil rights. And here in the United States, this land that prides itself as the "land of the free," that promises "liberty and justice for all," this should be doubly true!
All Americans, whether or not they are gay-supportive, should be VERY troubled by the current trend we've adopted: voting on our countrymen's rights.
Our national character and integrity should indeed be a top priority!
Making judgment calls about how these people are purposely harming or otherwise taking advantage of the GLBT community is both short sighted and ignorant. You cannot possibly know how loudly, or how tirelessly these young Republicans may be working for change, yet you demean them all the same. For shame.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! Then why do I have to spend my energy fighting conservatives for equal rights? If they don't care, stop fighting us! If they don't want to spend their time fighting about it, STOP FIGHTING US!!
Phew... thanks for letting me vent.
That's because conservatives are cowards who put public perception of their ideology over doing what's right.
Even the bigots know this... and shudder.
But just like most gay Republicans, they can put a price tag on the civil rights of gay people.
So they march happily off to vote for anti-gay Republican leaders. Their support of gay marriage adds up to virtually nothing.
But at least the got that tax cut.
It still doesn't change the fact that a large number of gay voters are desperate for a pat on the head from people who hate them. And that they can put a price on their civil rights (and the civil rights of their 'loved' ones) that in most cases is probably a couple hundred bucks a year.