Actually, a lot of POC (minority) LGBT and truly progressive gay folks don't have marriage or hate crimes or gay anti-discrimination as their top priority. Instead, they're focused on social justice issues - racism, immigration, poverty, health care, etc. We are, after all, human beings who experience a full gamut of problems not solely related to our being gay. I would push much harder for anti-discrimination laws and focus a lot less on gay marriage...then use the rest of our resources on matters that matter to the community beyond gay white men.
Gridlock
· 7 months ago
Funny, i thought equal rights under the law WAS a social justice issue. My gay white guy bad.
rick
· 7 months ago
nonwhite lesbians don't care about marriage? not even the ones with kids?
nicho
· 7 months ago
Well, all of the issues you mention are closely bound to marriage, hate crimes and discrimination. Your post doesn't make any sense.
You say these people are interested in racism, but not discrimination. You say they're interested in immigration and health-care, but not marriage.
It's all part of the package. This post is nonsense.
High Crimes & Misdemeanors
· 7 months ago
Nicho,
Think of it this way. Civil Right speaks to higher plane of importance. Without civil rights, which can equate with fairness, justice, equality under the law, it is a recognition that we all live under some universal foundation of human rights. C.Rt's. come first before you can have immigration, health care, hate crime laws, but you need civil rights first. Hence the fight we have now amoung our clod-thinking log cabiner's.
Yes, C.Rt's and all the other examples are intertwined, but one holds more water then the other.
At least that's the way I see it. I've been known to be wrong,....
...once. ;)
Joel
· 7 months ago
I don't know, I'm over 50 and I've seen a lot of improvements for minorities, women's rights, health care and other social issues. Seems to me, gays are the only people left who can be publicly humiliated and threatened.
Most of my life has sure been fucked up with this anti-gay shit and I really would like to live at least a small part of it feeling ok.
BuryMeKnot
· 7 months ago
"Feeling OK" is between you and God. There's no law that can make anti-gay religious right think that you are "OK". You will always be a pervert in their minds.
Joel
· 7 months ago
I live in Iowa. On April 3rd, the State Supreme Court struck down the Iowa Defense of Marriage Act. Thursday, the leaders of the Iowa State house, blocked an effort by Republican right wing extremists to induce a bill to amend the state constiturion to ban gay marriage. Legalizing gay marriage gives us the chance to show the world that we are not perverts, legalizing gay marriage gives us hope.
"Somewheres in Des Moines or San Antonio there’s a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay, notes that if their parents find out, they would be tossed out of the house, the classmates would taunt the child, and the Anita Bryants and John Briggs are doing their bit on T.V. and that child would have several options. Staying in the closet, suicide, and then one day that child might open the paper and it says homosexual elected in San Francisco and there are two new opens. The option is to go to California, or Stay and San Antonio and fight… You have got to elect gay people, so that young child, and the thousands and thousands like that child, know there is hope." – Harvey Milk
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 7 months ago
I'm concerned with all kinds of issues beyond gay-specific ones, but I also KNOW that if we don't work for our own equal rights, no one ELSE will! We must take time to work for OUR justice or we are doomed. And by "our" justice I mean justice for all gay people, regardless of gender identification, age, race, size, nationality, or whatever else.
empireofno
· 7 months ago
the issues they choose to focus on makes it clear that gay republicans think money is more important than civil rights or being respected by society. comes as no surprise.
rick
· 7 months ago
If there are any psychologists reading John's comments regarding these folks' mental health, I would be interested in their thoughts. Personally, I couldn't agree more. rjheid@aol.com
nicho
· 7 months ago
I know several gay Republicans. They are truly messed up. One is a kept boy, who IS interested in gay marriage because he's afraid he won't get enough stuff if "Daddy" croaks. He spends his whole day -- apart from two hours at the gym -- reading right-wing propaganda.
Another is the aforementioned "Daddy," who stopped thinking for himself about 25 years ago. Throw out a topic and you'll find out what Rush or O'Reilly said about it yesterday.
Another is the most self-hating gay person I know.
Did I mention they are all very comfortable financially?
ShirleyGoodnessanMercy
· 7 months ago
"Don't get me wrong, a lot of them are nice people. They're just nice people in need of years of therapy."
TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN!
They are riddled with self-hatred.
RainbowPhoenix
· 7 months ago
So much for my hopes of seeing a true counterpart to the Stonewall Democrats.
Houndentenor
· 7 months ago
Oh c'mon. Gay Republicans are a hoot. Their entire raison d'etre seems to be hating liberals. Then they wonder why liberals won't date them after they blather on and on about how we hate America. Gaypatriot is the most bizarre blog ever. Who needs the religious right telling America we don't deserve the right to marry when we have GayPatriotWest and NorthDallasThirty doing their dirty work for them. It's sad mostly. Then funny. Then kind of sad again. Maybe wikipedia should provide a link for whenever someone searches for "cognitive dissonance".
ndtovent
· 7 months ago
I used to read that blog. I know exactly what you mean.
High Crimes & Misdemeanors
· 7 months ago
This is called a bitch slap to the gayRepublicans. (the words should not be separated.) I can just hear the brick in the glove crumbling to pieces..... ;)
"They're just nice people in need of years of therapy. "
LOL.
Nice post John!
devlzadvocate
· 7 months ago
gRop'ers? Teabaggin' gRop'ers?
Abelard
· 7 months ago
Yes, I do know several gay Republicans and it is pure tragedy.
Simply, they would sell their families to the highest bidder if it meant cash in their pocket and a reduction in their taxes.
When Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity decries the evils of homosexuality, they simply whimper and wonder what they can do to make the bigots like them just a bit more.
So, they sell out the gay community and the essence of who they are to prove that they are Republicans first and that they just happen to like having sex with people of the same gender.
Meanwhile, the GOP laughs and slaps their knees knowing that, once again, they can rely on "those faggots" to vote for GOP candidates in the next election.
Rev_Sacrilege
· 7 months ago
Gay Republicans are a bunch of sad-ass closet cases.
ndtovent
· 7 months ago
They consider themselves many other types of people first, and gay, 3rd, 4th, or way on down the line. "i'm a !$$%&*^%$!! republican shill for the extremely wealthy criminals FIRST, gay 2nd..."
example
· 7 months ago
Either that or they're just really rich. Also, I've heard some gay republicans are republicans because they hate blacks more then they love manlove.
Mcguffin
· 7 months ago
From the description from Politico's Ben Smith, this seems more like a front for a corrupt banking industry (get wiped out by an unregulated and unmonitored financial sector!). They're involved in everything but gay issues. Gay marriages don't get reciprocal social security benefits, etc, but that only makes us more exposed to greedy corporations and despicable insurance practices. If they ditch conservative love for deregulation (don't bet on it) they could be worthwhile. Otherwise they are leading gay people to their ruin.
Normally, organizations debate whether they should expand beyond their core issue; Goproud seems to have dispensed with its core issue entirely.
Mike_H
· 7 months ago
Gay republicans are basically saying that their essential personhood is up for sale.
"We don't want equal rights, we want lower taxes".
It's sad and pathetic. I'm just as good as any straight American, and I deserve equality, and for me, that's not something the GOP can bribe me out of believing.
Any gay person who thinks tax codes are more important than equal rights is a gay person who still hasn't come to terms with who they are. Therapy is definitely a good answer, John.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 7 months ago
they are much more than just gay. they are materialistic soulless homophobes who just happen to be gay.
jgm22
· 7 months ago
if gay values/rights etc. aren't a concern for these people why do they even bother seperating themselves as a "gay" republican group? why not just be regular republicans? i'm not quite sure what their goal is here.
Blueflash
· 7 months ago
I don't know what their goal is but by being the antithesis of gays who respect themselves and are rightly angered by the injustices gay people experience and our outright dehumanization they play into the hands of those lying conservatives who claim not to hate us - we don't have a problem with gays, just the "militant" type that "flaunts" it and tries to jam it down our throats.
Silver Owl
· 7 months ago
Today's republicans, regardless of sexual orientation, are not known for striving for rights for others, unless it involves others killing and getting killed while generating billions for companies.
Since we already have private health care and private saving accounts I can only assume based on previous republican track record that this group of republicans are going to come up with a goofy plan that would rake in billions for the insurance and banking industry and investors.
It is definitely not going to be about helping people, just businesses.
ChasinMaine
· 7 months ago
A gay republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.
Guest
· 7 months ago
No, Jon, you're wrong. Only in your narrow-minded world must someone agree with hate-crimes legislation in order to be gay. The fact is, there are many gay people who do not support hate crimes legislation. Stop trying to label people according to your narrow points of view.
Blueflash
· 7 months ago
Like it or not, federal hate crime laws already exist and they're not going away. They just don't include the category of sexual orientation. What's the implicit message? That hate crimes are wrong but those against gays have some justification. That's the message. By the way, the category would be "sexual orientation", not specifically "gays and lesbians". So in the rare case a gay person committed a crime against a heterosexual because that person is heterosexual they would be equally at risk for added penalties. It's a right wing canard that it would amount to special protection for gays. I'd be opposed to it too if it did. The fact that nearly all hate crimes based on sexual orientation are done by straights against gays is obviously irrelevant.
Tom in Lazybrook
· 7 months ago
It seems as this group's main goal is to fight against equal rights for LGBT Americans while being protected by the closet. I'm not sure that GOProud! is the right name.
thorbradsher
· 7 months ago
But I wonder if all this "seriously fucked up in the head" stuff and self-hatred and whatnot isn't the driving force behind the highly destructive and sociopathic governance we've had inflicted on us during the Bush years.
Dagobert2nd
· 7 months ago
I think there are a lot of similarities between these people and Black Republicans. The only reason the Republicans even keep either of these groups around is so they can try to claim to squishy middle that they are not racist or homophobic. In any event, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Dagobert2nd
· 7 months ago
Oh and both groups are kidding of themselves if they think "real" Republicans like Limbaugh and Palin will ever respect them.
All Comments
Dave
Old Guy
Viet Nam to Stonewall
Hell, at least the Log Cabin people gave some pretense of working for GLBT issues.
Oh, who am I kidding? Nothing they do surprises me any more.
You say these people are interested in racism, but not discrimination. You say they're interested in immigration and health-care, but not marriage.
It's all part of the package. This post is nonsense.
Think of it this way. Civil Right speaks to higher plane of importance. Without civil rights, which can equate with fairness, justice, equality under the law, it is a recognition that we all live under some universal foundation of human rights. C.Rt's. come first before you can have immigration, health care, hate crime laws, but you need civil rights first. Hence the fight we have now amoung our clod-thinking log cabiner's.
Yes, C.Rt's and all the other examples are intertwined, but one holds more water then the other.
At least that's the way I see it. I've been known to be wrong,....
...once. ;)
Most of my life has sure been fucked up with this anti-gay shit and I really would like to live at least a small part of it feeling ok.
"Somewheres in Des Moines or San Antonio there’s a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that she or he is gay, notes that if their parents find out, they would be tossed out of the house, the classmates would taunt the child, and the Anita Bryants and John Briggs are doing their bit on T.V. and that child would have several options. Staying in the closet, suicide, and then one day that child might open the paper and it says homosexual elected in San Francisco and there are two new opens. The option is to go to California, or Stay and San Antonio and fight… You have got to elect gay people, so that young child, and the thousands and thousands like that child, know there is hope." – Harvey Milk
Another is the aforementioned "Daddy," who stopped thinking for himself about 25 years ago. Throw out a topic and you'll find out what Rush or O'Reilly said about it yesterday.
Another is the most self-hating gay person I know.
Did I mention they are all very comfortable financially?
TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN!
They are riddled with self-hatred.
"They're just nice people in need of years of therapy. "
LOL.
Nice post John!
Simply, they would sell their families to the highest bidder if it meant cash in their pocket and a reduction in their taxes.
When Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity decries the evils of homosexuality, they simply whimper and wonder what they can do to make the bigots like them just a bit more.
So, they sell out the gay community and the essence of who they are to prove that they are Republicans first and that they just happen to like having sex with people of the same gender.
Meanwhile, the GOP laughs and slaps their knees knowing that, once again, they can rely on "those faggots" to vote for GOP candidates in the next election.
Normally, organizations debate whether they should expand beyond their core issue; Goproud seems to have dispensed with its core issue entirely.
"We don't want equal rights, we want lower taxes".
It's sad and pathetic. I'm just as good as any straight American, and I deserve equality, and for me, that's not something the GOP can bribe me out of believing.
Any gay person who thinks tax codes are more important than equal rights is a gay person who still hasn't come to terms with who they are. Therapy is definitely a good answer, John.
Since we already have private health care and private saving accounts I can only assume based on previous republican track record that this group of republicans are going to come up with a goofy plan that would rake in billions for the insurance and banking industry and investors.
It is definitely not going to be about helping people, just businesses.