Andrew Sullivan reports on the Cato Institute‘s forum addressing the question Is there a place for gay people in conservatism and conservative politics?, a debate that featured Sullivan alongside Catholic anti-marriage equality campaigner Maggie Gallagher and openly gay British Conservative MP Nick Herbert.
Gay Cato employee Jason Kuznicki was also in attendance (he can be seen on the video at about the 73-minute mark here). Kuznicki writes:
… I got to ask Maggie Gallagher the question I’ve always wanted to ask her: What do you think that am I supposed to do with my life?
Suppose I found myself in agreement with her. Suppose I concluded that same-sex marriage was corrosive to society. Do I leave my husband? Do I send my adopted daughter back to the state? Enter ex-gay therapy, which isn’t likely to work? Tell my whole family that I’m single now, and that Scott shouldn’t be welcome at family events? Live my whole life alone, and loveless? Hide? Where is the life I’m supposed to live?
I probably wasn’t so articulate at the Cato event, but I do recall Gallagher’s very simple answer: “I don’t know.”
She certainly doesn’t, and that’s the whole problem with gay conservatism — there’s hardly a life to be lived within it. There’s no breathing room. Until social conservatives offer us a better answer than “I don’t know,” until they offer us a way to be gay, and conservative, and respectable in their eyes, they’re not going to find many gay conservatives.
The answer conservatives give, when wise enough to know conversion therapy doesn’t work, is Yes, they should be celibate and sexless. Unmarried doesn’t always mean alone or loveless as asexuals like myself can attest although they are sometimes. If forced to articulate an answer, this is what anti-gays think.
Therefore, I think the conversation should be shifted from these “Is heterosexuality superior (fewer STDs, less promiscuous, etc) to homosexuality” debates to “Is celibacy superior to gay marriage.” Real life is more complicated than that, but for ideological debates, that’s a far better dialogue than gay vs straight.
Jason – you are more optimistic than I am.
There are plenty of (I would bet privileged in many respects – white, rich, men in particular) gay people who are willing to allow their class and/or racial privileges to win the day over sex/gender/sexual orientation oppression.
By the way, have you seen “Outrage” yet?