Gay Republican Quote of the Day
“There’s going to be a lot of people watching to see if the voters can look at my record and say, ‘He’s doing a good job.’” “Or, will they look at my personal life and say, ‘I can’t support him because of that.’ If that’s how they’re going to vote, I may be out of a job.”
–Paul Koering, a Republican State Senator in Minnesota facing a primary challenge and who openly announced his sexual orientation a few days after being the sole Republican legislator to cast a procedural vote against that state’s bigot amendment. (Koering says he never hid his sexual orientation; he just never declared it so openly before.)
Is Koering being purged by the GOP?
“People of high moral values and integrity must rally and support candidates who will work to bring ethics, morals and family values back into government,” [primary opponent Kevin] Goedker’s father, Gene, his campaign treasurer, wrote in a fundraising letter.
More:
“This is about whether voters can trust Senator Koering. Can they trust him to keep the homosexual agenda out of our schools? Can they trust him to defend the definition of marriage?
So, apparently, if you’re gay — even if you’re Republican and gay — you are, at least by innuendo, opposed to “ethics, morals and family values.” And who is foolish enough to believe that a homosexual can be trusted in the conservatives’ War on Gays? Certainly not the conservatives. They get what many gays simply do not: You are just not welcome in the GOP.
Stated differently: To Republicans, “gay” always comes first and always trumps every other consideration. It is a litmus test, even more so than abortion or gun control ever was.
Of course, Koering might actually win the primary, and re-election. But one wonders whether the challenge would ever have been sanctioned by party leaders had Koering not been gay. Is every — any — straight Republican who voted against a bigot amendment recently now facing a serious primary challenge? (The surprisingly gay-centric primary contest involving Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee is the only one that comes to mind.)
My position is unchanged: Being an active gay Republican is prima facie evidence of self-loathing. How much more bigotry must the Republican Party throw in your face before you will get the message?
More thoughts from Pam’s House Blend.
UPDATE: Koering won by a rather slim 55-45 margin.
Similar Posts:
- Anti-Gay Bigotry Quote of the Day
- Gay Politics Quote of the Day
- Gay Voting 201
- Gay Republican (Guest) Quote of the Day
- Republican Hypocrisy in the Craig Affair
Filed under: Uncategorized
You just explained why I'm a Libertarian, and why the Libertarian Party is the only political party for gay people who are free-market, personal liberty oriented.
2/3 of the criticism of the LP from "libertarians without a home" is exagerration, and the other 1/3 is a result of those libertarians sitting on their laurels rather than joining in and making the LP a serious alternative to the GOP and Democrats.
Libertarians who sit on the sidelines confuse me. In the LP, I've found a party which is a lot more accepting of gays than either the Dems or Reps, and who isn't trying to run my life through government. Whereas, if one says "the LP is 'too extreme' and I don't want to do what it takes to make it closer to my view," and says "the GOP is no place for gay people" and finally rejects the Democratic Party, why even worry about politics? Effective isolation from the political process while trying to influence the system strikes me as even more Quixotic than trying to build up a sustained LP.
Just my thoughts.
I'm a gay Republican, and I wonder if you've known me long enough to take my word for it when I assure you that I don't loathe myself in the slightest. In fact, I'm pretty fond of myself.
[Kip replies: And we're fond of you too. But fondness isn't the coin of the realm in the blogosphere -- evidence is.
Stated differently, you've got some 'splaining to do.]