To Be Gay and Republican
The GOP Pink Purge
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
I almost coughed out my breakfast cereals one Monday Morning when I started reading a St. Peterburg Times article on gay Republican staffers being accused of downplaying the Foley issue to protect a fellow gay Republican (?!) It was a recent article by Bill Adair & Web Allison and the nearest link I could find on the subject was this: Link
A year ago (or when was that time macho Republican gubernator Shwarzenegger started pooh-poohing “girlie-men”?) you wouldn’t connect Republicans with being gay. The adjectives “soft” were mostly thrown at Democrats . Democrats were usually pictured as being “soft” on Terror, “soft” on immigration.. you know. …and of course, the reverse (“tough”) automatically reflects Republican muscle.
Now, before anybody gets any idea, I’d like to state for the record that I’m perfectly comfortable in my heterosexuality and I respect the third sex as human beings . A lot of them are not only talented but decent and responsible members of a community. So, this isn’t supposed to be a gay-bashing issue.
It’s just the idea of that “label” or tag sticking with stereotypic images of either party that gets me when all of sudden, you read : Republican = gay.
All of a sudden (at least to me), three gay Republicans, Congressman Jim Kolbe (Ariz.), Jeff Trandahl, the House clerk in charge of the page program and Kirk Fordham, Foley’s chief of staff, turn out in the investigations that had some conservative leaders surprised at the number of gay operatives in their favorite political party. The concern on Republican “traditional values” comes at a time when Congress failed to pass a ban on gay marriage and other items on the top of the evangelical agenda. Apparently, according to a Congressional Quarterly columnist, Craig Crawford, who is openly gay, “They are giving the impression of a gay Mafia protecting one of their own.”, after admissions were given of knowledge of the Foley escapade since 2001. Mention of a national organization, the Log Cabin Republicans, represented by its executive vice President, Patrick Sammon, surprised me as well. What’s going on? It’s probably politically incorrect to ask for a headcount in either Party and surprisingly, in the Republican Party, but it really makes one wonder – How many more out there remain cloaked ? Will this now be a choice between a Party with Open Gays and a Party with Closet Gays ? The dividing line, is of course, the Dishonesty and Hypocrisy that the Closet Gay has to live thru that would sooner or later influence his effectivity as a public administrator earning the nation’s trust. What would now be the official Republican line on gay marriages ? Would they now be “soft” on this?
But the issue was never really Homosexuality with Foley, but an abuse of the public’s trust and confidence placed in him as the man in charge of the pages’ welfare.
As if to smoothen out the scenery, we had Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice swearing in Dr. Mark Dybul, who is openly gay, to become US Global AIDS coordinator, also recognizing his partner and his partner’s mom, who was referred to as Dybul’s “mother-in-law”. Even for non-gays looking at the Republican scene, the confusion remains at its euphemistic best, interesting.
A year ago (or when was that time macho Republican gubernator Shwarzenegger started pooh-poohing “girlie-men”?) you wouldn’t connect Republicans with being gay. The adjectives “soft” were mostly thrown at Democrats . Democrats were usually pictured as being “soft” on Terror, “soft” on immigration.. you know. …and of course, the reverse (“tough”) automatically reflects Republican muscle.
Now, before anybody gets any idea, I’d like to state for the record that I’m perfectly comfortable in my heterosexuality and I respect the third sex as human beings . A lot of them are not only talented but decent and responsible members of a community. So, this isn’t supposed to be a gay-bashing issue.
It’s just the idea of that “label” or tag sticking with stereotypic images of either party that gets me when all of sudden, you read : Republican = gay.
All of a sudden (at least to me), three gay Republicans, Congressman Jim Kolbe (Ariz.), Jeff Trandahl, the House clerk in charge of the page program and Kirk Fordham, Foley’s chief of staff, turn out in the investigations that had some conservative leaders surprised at the number of gay operatives in their favorite political party. The concern on Republican “traditional values” comes at a time when Congress failed to pass a ban on gay marriage and other items on the top of the evangelical agenda. Apparently, according to a Congressional Quarterly columnist, Craig Crawford, who is openly gay, “They are giving the impression of a gay Mafia protecting one of their own.”, after admissions were given of knowledge of the Foley escapade since 2001. Mention of a national organization, the Log Cabin Republicans, represented by its executive vice President, Patrick Sammon, surprised me as well. What’s going on? It’s probably politically incorrect to ask for a headcount in either Party and surprisingly, in the Republican Party, but it really makes one wonder – How many more out there remain cloaked ? Will this now be a choice between a Party with Open Gays and a Party with Closet Gays ? The dividing line, is of course, the Dishonesty and Hypocrisy that the Closet Gay has to live thru that would sooner or later influence his effectivity as a public administrator earning the nation’s trust. What would now be the official Republican line on gay marriages ? Would they now be “soft” on this?
But the issue was never really Homosexuality with Foley, but an abuse of the public’s trust and confidence placed in him as the man in charge of the pages’ welfare.
As if to smoothen out the scenery, we had Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice swearing in Dr. Mark Dybul, who is openly gay, to become US Global AIDS coordinator, also recognizing his partner and his partner’s mom, who was referred to as Dybul’s “mother-in-law”. Even for non-gays looking at the Republican scene, the confusion remains at its euphemistic best, interesting.
