Tweet
Kerry Eleveld's View to Washington column at The Advocate takes a look at members of the GOP who support LGBT issues in the party of “family values.” The Republican Party has had the torches and pitchforks out for the community for decades, but now some are now cracking that closet door in deep Blue states hoping for a win.
It’s been a little slow in coming but it looks like Republicans are finally getting the message that being outright homophobic is not the wave of the future.
This week in New York, the Republican county chairs of the 23rd congressional district tossed aside a handful of other candidates and tapped state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava to run for the seat being vacated by Rep. John McHugh, whom President Obama has nominated as Secretary of the Army.
Scozzafava is one of four GOP assemblymembers who voted to pass New York’s first marriage equality bill back in 2007 – a vote that some deemed a potential death knell in her conservative upstate district. But conventional wisdom imploded and Scozzafava ran for re-election uncontested – meaning no one thought she was vulnerable enough to lose.
In Illinois, the Senate seat kept warm by the departing Roland Burris is up for grabs and the Republican party there is eyeing Congressman Mark Kirk.
Though Kirk is not on the record for marriage equality, he co-sponsored the House’s hate crimes bill, voted for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act in 2007 and against the Federal Marriage Amendment in both 2004 and 2006.
Kirk may be assailed by some die-hard social conservatives as a traitor and a RINO (Republican In Name Only), but clearly the GOP leadership senses that he is their best hope to win back a seat from Democrats.
So is this a real trend based on the principle that TEH GAY is not so bad after all, or is it only a matter of survival for the GOP in Blue states because being virulently anti-gay is a losing POV? Eleveld quotes GOP insider Fred Malek, who writes on Red State about his top 10 Republican leaders who are making an impact (one who made the list is…Charlie Crist):
My fellow conservatives may not like this one, but hear me out: Unless our party can embrace a big tent policy that welcomes moderates like my friend Colin Powell, we will not win elections. In liberal-dominated Illinois, Delaware and increasingly purple Florida, we need to be open to supporting officials who can win and will support our issues most of the time, instead of electing more Democrats who will oppose us nearly all of the time.
While this is all well and good to diversify in a party in disarray that has lost big, the cautionary note in the column is that the “pro-gay” party in name only, the Democrats, are doing the flip side in the South by throwing us under the bus, trying to craft wins by fielding anti-gay, forced-birth advocate candidates who do a lot of bible-quoting and family values shilling.
This doesn't move the ball forward for equal rights at all; at the very least candidates in the South need to learn how to frame the social issues differently; the right wing groups are going to ask them anyway, so pols better get used to questions from them, as well as LGBTs who want to know a stand on the issues. We cannot make gains if the issues are not discussed publicly — no education occurs to make progress by fielding candidate who are hostile to LGBT rights.
22 Comments
In all honestyI think the reason the far (religious) right has been getting extra frothy over the past few election cycles is that they see the writing on the wall. They know that, even within the evangelical movement, there is a growing # of people that is sick of the fixation on sex (including everything the right decides to make into a “sex” issue) and that those ranks swell with the younger generations. It appears as though at least some Republicans realize that continuing their quest for a fundamentalist Xtian theocracy is not only a lesson in futility now, it’s something that will hurt their attempts to gain power in the not too distant future. Slowly, but surely, the GOP will be glad to let the over-reaching fundamentalist movement consolidate the fringe and become largely irrelevant to the general population.
colin powell a moderate? rotfl!i take with a mountain of salt anything written by anyone who claims Colin Powell is a moderate. powell made sure gays were vilified in the hearings surrounding dadt. powell outright lied to the public and congress about wmd in iraq. powell is lying scum. anyone basing any kind view of the gop on what powell says or does is highly suspect in my book.
Implicit references will continueThey may not be blurting outright homophobia but will attack moral decay in SF and Hollywood, their favorite examples of Sodom and Gomorrah. If they don’t the fundamentalists (black and white) won’t vote for them. Just heard Palin addressing Alaska complaining about Hollywood starlets stumping for gun control. Slamming Hollywood is a knee jerk vote for conservatives.
MMMnnnYou mean like when he came out in support of Obama prior to the election and then voted for him? Or the part where he now supports a move toward doing away with DADT. I don’t think it is just the Christian right that will be going through changes. Its often to easy to hold grudges and inadvertently moved ourselves to the extreme because of such grudges. There are no demons only people who need their minds educated to the plight of all of us.
I don’t think the GOP is about change as much as it is about imageBut when has that ever changed no matter what political party we have looked too. Every party seems a lot more pro gay prior to an election than it ever remains after one. After all there was a time when Even Bush looked to court the gay vote in order to win elections. I believe what we really should be concerned with is keeping pressure the current administration and legislation to get what we can out of this election cycle because it is just a fact that most of the time the majority party can expect to lose power and seats in the coming mid-term elections.
Republicans changing their tune
Well, I don’t think anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth has much to do with what the actual politician thinks, so I would say that the GOP change is because being virulently anti-gay threatens their survival, because people in general in bluer states are starting to feel that TEH GHEY isn’t so scary after all. In my liberal city, when people talk about being republicans, it’s usually “I’m a republican BUT I’M NOT AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE! NOT A BIGOT!”
I think it’ll change at different rates in different parts of the country, but I bet this becomes much more a regional issue than a party line issue. And some folks in the GOP will figure out ways to hint at homophobia in a way that the homophobic part of the base will notice, but that will pass under the radar with other people, the way that Reagan used the image of “welfare queens” to appeal to the racist base without being explicit about it.
But I really think the trend for gays will only accelerate. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t occasionally mention gay neighbors or coworkers. People are getting used to it as a normal part of life, and now when a politician demonizes gays, people don’t think about “those scary gays who live in the scary gay part of town that’s scary!” They think about “Joe from accounting who helped me out on that big project last month.” It personalizes the issue for straight folks who might not have given it much thought otherwise.
That’s the great strength of our movement — we didn’t have to start with fighting for integration. We’re born integrated. And every person who knows the person and not the archetype is another step towards victory for us.
do you honestly trustanything colin powell says? really? as for supporting obama, lots of republicans with their finger in the wind did. it means nothing other than that powell still wants a political future.
it is presumptuous in the extreme for you to assume that i hold a grudge against anyone. powell has proven himself a treacherous liar of the highest caliber. it isn’t a grudge to measure his subsequent words buy his previous actions, it’s called not being an idiot doormat.
Southern DemocratsLots of squawks about the numbers of Democrats in Congress, so why can’t they get their act together and get these pro-LGBT rights bills passed?
Not so easy when you’re a Democrat from a Southern state like here in Tennessee. Dems here in TN aren’t liberal or even left of center. They’re right of center in their policy positions, just not as far right as their Republican opponents. They win by gaining more in the center (Tenn center) along with the more left leaning members of the electorate.
In a state that passed the marriage is only between one man and one woman Constitutional Amendment by a whopping 82%, Dems here can only support the most modest LBGT rights bills, such as ENDA without the T perhaps, if they expect to be reelected.
Dems are in 5 of the 9 House seats here in Tenn. Except for TN-9, the Memphis metropolitan area, which as a high portion of Blacks, the rest of the districts are conservative on most issues, especially where minority rights are concerned.
In March of 2004, our Rhea County Commission voted 8-0 (one member absent) to “ban gays from Rhea County.” After much ballyhoo, the Commission called a special meeting, marched in with a police escort, opened the meeting and rescinded the ban. They then closed the meeting and the police escort marched them out again. To my chagrin, it made the national and international news. The first blog post I ever made was about this event.
So one can’t go by the raw Dem v Rep numbers in Congress or national opinion polls on gay rights issues. One has to look at the states these Dems come from. Dems here in Tenn win by being just enough less conservative than the far right Reps they run against. I doubt this will change much here in Tenn as far as LBGT rights are concerned any time soon.
Powell on WMDHe only reported the WMD evidence the CIA gave him. It proved faulty of course, but don’t blame that on Powell. You’re only as truthful as the information you’re given.
He didn’t vilify gays during the DADT hearings. He simplly reported the situation in the military at the time.
Powell is a moderate as far as Republicans go.
As a fellow officer who also served in our military. I trust him implicitly.
Powell and DADTActually, he said it’s time to take a new look at DADT. He didn’t say he supports repealing it.
Slamming SF and LAAll Republicans aren’t cast in the same fundamentalist mold.
Don’t assume all Democrats are LBGT friendly either. (See below)
OopsMeant LA and Hollywood. SAT
One of the Republicans mentioned in that report isDelaware’s Rep. Mike Castle, “who gained notoriety this week when he tried to stand down a so-called ‘birther’ who hijacked his town hall meeting.”
Castle was trying to discuss health care reform with his constituents when teh crazy broke out, and an impromptu Pledge of Allegiance followed. It’s nuts and fascinating and funny and sad all at once. Imagine trying to be a moderate in this party.
yes i can blame that on powellbecause i don’t assume that what he says now by way of explanation is any more credible than what he said then. powell is complicit in the death of untold tens of thousands for fronting for bush’s war of folly. perhaps worst of all he betrayed the troops by letting them be wasted on pure bush folly. it is a crying shame.
as for the dadt hearings, yes he’s always used diplomatic language. so? just because he never used crass language doesn’t excuse that fact that he was a principal force behind the codification of bigotry in his military.
Log Cabin RepublicansUsually share your view, inventing the good in our enemies.
The constituency is Southern BaptistIn order to get elected in Tenneesee a candidate has to appeal to the fundamental religious, whether Democrat or Republican.
thank you for the insight on tennessee.i think kentucky is the same, from what i can gather. does tennessee have any progressive refuge city like like some other conservative states do?
Well at least keep in mindthat many LCRs that actually support gay rights have now left the GOP (to become independents) finally, and those that remain tend to care more about taxes than gay rights for the rest of us.
Illinois Republicansthat run statewide usually aren’t that bad though; one of the few Republican votes that I’ve ever cast was for George Ryan.
If, as some rumors have it, James Meeks enters the Dem primary and wins, Kirk will get my vote.
Judy Barr Topinka was (and is) relatively gay friendly but Blago was a true liberal (and Blago had more money).
And when there were murmurs about using the Constitutional Convention refrerendum to put a marriage amendment in the state Constitution, former Republican Governor Jim Edgar cut ads against a new Constitutional Convention for Illinois.
And Dan Seals might finally get Kirk’s seat too, if he is so inclined to run again.
James Meeks is not going to win anything.
But on the EXTREMELY improbable chance that he won the primary…I’d have to vote for him over any Republican. He’s going to be far more progressive on social and economic issues than any Republican.
Heh, I agree with you about Meekshe’s got nothing coming. I would never vote for him, though.
Which doesn’t mean that I would vote for Kirk in that scenario, I could just as easily decide to vote Green or sit out that one.
Now Giannalouis (I know I’m misspelling the name), he still need to flesh out his positions. Now that Lisa Madigan isn’t running (as it was assumed that she would) and with Jesse Jackson being mired in the Blago scandal, there is a bit of a name recoginition problem for the Dems.
Powell fought warPowell argued against the war at every step. Like any soldier, he knows the horrors of going to war and would favor any other approach in order to avoid it.
He honors and respects soldiers. He would keep them out of danger if he could. Bush went to war anyway. Blame him.