Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight about the ex-gay movement, comments in a June 4 op-ed in The Washington Blade about the difficulties facing gay Republicans.
The Blade also ran a front-page news story.
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Although I tend to vote Democratic. I feel sorry about the state of affairs. The trouble with gay rights being a Democratic issue is that whenever the Democrats are not in power we are in danger of loosing ground. The other trouble is that whenever they are in power but lack a strong majority they can not reach across the isle and gain votes. I hope the Republican Party moves closer to it’s roots of the party for fiscal responsibility than the party of lets try to turn the world into the 1950ies.
I agree. I used to be a Republican 10 years ago. Never again until they oust the ayatollahs from their ranks and stop taking orders from Dobson. The current president actively and cynically endorsing the so-called marriage amendment is the final straw. It will take quite a bit of time for me to get past that.
I think a lot more people would be Democrats if the party took a softer line on abortion, and I think a lot more people would be Republicans if the party weren’t transferring taxpayer revenue to big companies and deferring to the wishes of the political religious right.
It’s lonely being a political moderate (fiscal conservative, social liberal) these days. Any sort of deviation from the ‘accepted gay political norm” (usually far left on all issues) is often greeted with shock and derision. And then when I casually mention I’m a registered Republican, it’s amazing how other gay people will suddenly excuse themselves from my presence, as if I’m carrying some sort of deadly virus. I find that type of response to be incredibly lame, but it’s kind of fun being a source of shock value.
If they’d bother to stick around, they’d understand that I didn’t vote for Bush last time, and won’t this time, thanks to his support of the anti gay marriage amendment. (I didn’t vote for Gore, and don’t plan on voting for Kerry, either. I think both are spineless idiots.) On a national level, there hasn’t been a candidate I’ve liked since Reagan (yes, you can all pick yourselves up off the floor now). Rather, my interest is in local and state politics. Because the majority of California Republicans in control of the state party are right-wing boobs, I take advantage of the primaries to vote for moderate candidates like Richard Riordan. And yes, I voted for the Governator to unseat Gray Davis, who I also voted for previously. (So, as you can see, I don’t vote the Republican ticket unless I feel the person deserves my vote. In one case, I voted for a Green party candidate.) But I’m very pleased with what Arnold has done so far–he’s attempted to keep every campaign promise, and that’s pretty amazing.
If it weren’t for the opportunity to vote in the primaries, I’d probably be a registered Independent.