Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 30th, 2011
Maryland State Sen. Allan H. Kittleman
The Log Cabin Republican’s national convention got underway in Dallas Thursday evening, with the Friday sessions featuring several GOP politicos challenging the Republican Party to change its stance toward LGBT people or face the prospect of “los(ing) every Republican young person … if we don’t get on board.”
Maryland state Senator Allan Kittleman, a straight ally and the lone Republican to vote in favor of an unsuccessful marriage equality bill during this year’s session, issued that warning to the Republican Party. His support for marriage equality came at a great political cost, when he voluntarily stepped down as Senate minority leader. His position also led colleagues to ask whether he was himself secretly gay or had a gay family member. Kittleman’s response:
I said, ‘Well, why can’t it just be that he’s for civil liberties for everyone?'” Kittleman recalled. “For someone to say you can’t be a real Republican if you support gay rights, that’s just a bunch of bull.”
…Kittleman choked back tears as he recalled his response to a reporter who asked why he voted for marriage equality considering the potential political consequences. “What I told them was that 20 years from now, when my grandchildren want to ask me what I did to support civil rights, that was more important to me than the next election.”
Fred Karger
Also speaking at the convention was Fred Karger, who is running for the GOP nomination as the nation’s first openly gay presidential candidate. Karger announced to the group that he has qualified for a GOP presidential debate to be held next week in South Carolina. However, Fox News, which is organizing the debate, has not yet confirmed that Karger will be allowed to join Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Herman Cain for the face-off — even though not all of them met all of Fox News’ entry criteria either.
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Graham
April 30th, 2011
“Also speaking at the convention was Fred Karger, who is running for the GOP nomination as the nation’s first openly gay presidential candidate”
excusez-moi…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McReynolds
enough already
May 1st, 2011
Andrew Sullivan has maintained for years that the American conservatives won’t dump the hate until they suffer such defeat at the polls there is no other choice.
I think he’s right. I also wonder if, given that the US is now in the 151st year of the War between the States, this will ever happen.
Oh, and save me the usual anti-Andrew spew. It’s so weary making.
Richard Rush
May 1st, 2011
e.a. said,
That reminds me of something I read a long time ago, and it stuck with me. To paraphrase: Generally, politicians are not focused on changing or shaping public opinions/attitudes/beliefs. They merely exploit the existing opinions/attitudes/beliefs to the maximum extent possible to garner votes.
And that, largely, seems to approximate the definition of a demagogue.
Ryan
May 1st, 2011
The thing is, while more and more Americans are coming around on gay equality issues, I’m not sure too many are actually voting based on that. A Repub or right-leaning Independent voter might be for gay marriage in theory, but they’re not gonna vote for the Democratic candidate based on that issue. I think that’s the real problem. Republicans have zero incentive to vote our way, while through the Religious Right, they have a huge incentive to vote the other way.
Désirée
May 2nd, 2011
The fact remains that most people are going to vote based on economic principles before they vote on gay rights principles. A person could be for gay rights, but also strongly capitalist, and they are going to vote Republican because, ultimately, those economic policies will affect them whereas the gay rights ones will not.
In a battle between two evils (dem vs. repubs) people will choose the one whose heinous policies are easiest to ignore/avoid. Whether either side supports “gay rights” is a minor consideration in the grand scheme. What a politician wants to do with the money in your wallet will also trump any other consideration.
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