Over at the Dish, Andrew Sullivan writes
I’ve long thought that gay men are a natural fit for a non-bigoted GOP. We await one. And the wait seems to be getting longer.
This is all well and good, in one sense. The more a person can feel comfortable as themselves in both political parties, the more our culture as a whole will be showing signs of progress. That the general consensus across all sorts of demographic cleavages, including political ones might converge in such a way that the solid mainstream is social acceptance is a positive.
But let’s keep in mind what “non-bigoted” really means, Andrew. It means a Republican party that isn’t actively hostile to women’s rights, including reproductive choice, access to contraception, and a legal framework that protects them from violence. It means a Republican party that doesn’t actively harbor folks like John Derbyshire for years, including years in which Derbyshire self-described themselves as a racist. It means a world in which the Republicans advance to considering the “T” portion of the LGBT acronym as people. (To be fair, Democrats need to work much harder on this too, I’m looking at you, Barney Frank.) And Republicans are going to need to stop being so actively and powerfully aligned with powerful financial interests against people with fewer means — upper class bigotry against lower class people is still bigotry, folks!
S the idea of the Republican party being non-bigoted being a way for a gay male to get along with them really limits itself to one specific kind of gay person, that is, a rich, white, cisgendered, male gay person.
I’m sad to say that I think Sullivan and the person he’s talking with are probably right on the merits of their prediction. I think a lot of gay men, especially if the Republican party isn’t actively opposing their marriages, will probably start to migrate to the Republican Party. But I say that’s a shame, because whatever that party might become, let’s not call it “non-bigoted” just yet. We might just find that rich, white, cisgendered gay men are more bigoted than we originally thought.
I’d love for them, and for the Republicans, to prove me wrong. And, as a white, cisgendered gay man who might one day be wealthier than some thanks in part to the privileges of my color and my gender, I’d hate to be someone who jettisoned all principle once my own personal satisfaction had been achieved.
marry me moses 