I walked over from the University Club to the Xcel Center where the convention is taking place. Â They have put up barricades and there’s been lots of security, but even the cops from out of town seem to have caught a case of “Minnesota Nice.” Â Everyone’s been really, really friendly.
While I don’t have wireless at the seat in the press section that the campaign has assigned me, Roger Simon, has allowed me to connect through the Pajamas network.
And I’ve been meeting some of my favorite bloggers. Chatted with Hugh Hewitt yet again–what a great guy. He quite interested in the reaction of gay Republicans to the Palin pick. He was delighted to learn how enthused we all are.
Since coming to the Xcel Center, I am using this opportunity to see how Republicans react to an openly gay man in their midst. So far, I have introduced myself to former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele and Frank Luntz as a gay man.
I asked the latter if he had ever done focus groups on gay issues. “I never asked,” he replied. Steele and I exchanged pleasantries about a Maryland politician we both knew. He was incredibly friendly, gracious even when I told him about the blog. He said he’d read it.
Down here with the Pajamas folk, I finally met Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit. Very nice guy. He’s now cutting an episode for PJTV. I mentioned my “experiment” on being openly gay here.
When I thanked him for linking my post on links and hate comments, I told him the comments I received to the post confirm my point-that there’s a noticeable increase in hate comments when we get linked on left-wing blogs, but no such increase when linked on conservatives and libertarian web-sites. Â Similarly, I told how warmly I’d been received by conservative bloggers while getting a lot of grief from left-wing gay web-sites.
He said I should blog on this.
I think I just did.
One of the best reasons for being out as a gay man at the convention. Meeting other bloggers and politicians. A lot of the bloggers are aware of gay Republicans, I think it is especially good that politicians realize that there is room for outreach to the gay community.
I really like Michael Steele, I even sent him money from CA. I certainly hope we haven’t heard the last of him!!
good for you! and good for those so called “homophobe” republicans.
frankly, i have seen in the past couple of days WAAAAY more small minded acts of personal destruction. good to see my belief in the general goodness of most people is still valid.
To the left, you are not the right kind of gay, i.e. not gay enough, Steele is not black enough, and Palin is not a woman.
I am using this opportunity to see how Republicans react to an openly gay man in their midst.
Just curious, but were you expecting hostility? If so, why?
I think (hope) that most of us are logical enough to realize that homosexuality in no way threatens our way of life.
On the marriage issue, I wish we’d have had the foresight to keep both hetero and homosexual marriage out of the state’s hands. Since we already abdicated it to the government, I have a hard time being upset if others want equal protection.
Anyway, I hope you know that there are (I think, hope) a lot of us that wish you well, welcome you in our party, and hope that together we can both win elections and improve the country. Thanks for having the guts to get out there.
Palin, Steele, Jindal. The future is bright.
Every dog has his day, the saying goes. I suspect under the more moderate McCain the Republican party will start to openly embrace some gay causes. It will be incremental at first. But I think gay marriage will inevitably be accepted. If only some Gay Republican politicians would come out, they could represent gays in the party.
As for Michael Steele, I am all for McCain giving him a cabinet post if/when he gets elected.
As far as your reception amongst Republicans goes, I think it reflects, in part, the simple passage of time. Thirty years ago, openly Gay folks were rare enough that it was possible for a straight person to go through life thinking that they’d never met a Gay person. With time and a more public stance, familiarity comes, friendships occur and a de-mystifying effect that works in your favor takes hold.
At this point, I find it very rare to hear anti-gay slurs among adults and when I do and challenge it, the person making the slur inevitably (and I do mean always) backs off and affects a kind of sheepish, “just joshing” kind of attitude. This is usually followed by a surprising degree of support for moving past old prejudices regardless of the political leanings of the person in question.
I think the Pink Pistols are GREAT, and have attended many an event with friends (a yearly private bunch of us Theater People, playing croquet and drinkin’) that has gladly included another friend and co-founder of Dykes on Bikes. I’m very probably an anomaly in the Bay Area, being conservative (now, I used to be a dumb-ass local Communista type), and now a married hetero – so not particularly gay.
But as a dude who worked in Theater (and Opera) for a long time I have no qualms or foibles about a persons sexuality or expression thereof, everybody needs everybody to get the damn show on the road and UP on opening night — but the rampant observance and self-congratulation that some folks glory in is as trite, boring, and tiring to me as fundamental Evangelicalism. Go Log Cabin dudes!
Frank Luntz? Didn’t Penn & Teller lambasted the guy for manipulating the thoughts of those being polled by cleverly phrasing the questions?
Rob: um duh. that’s what those sorts of job do.
As a conservative/libertarian, most I know like-minded in values just don’t talk of sexuality as a qualification. It has become that because of ‘civil rights’ attached to leftist ideology and having nothing to do with respect for human dignity regardless of sexual preference.
I can imagine most Republicans embracing gays for having heartfelt patriotism. I can’t imagine most Democrats embracing born again Christians for the same. Then again I can’t imagine them embracing anyone having such love of country.
Dogwood, no I was not expecting hostility; I was just confirming a hypothesis.
“I am using this opportunity to see how Republicans react to an openly gay man in their midst.
Just curious, but were you expecting hostility? If so, why?”
I figured he was just trolling to see if he could get a bite 8^D.
It’d be great if gay politics, as an identity could disappear, as it largely has here in Europe.
In German, where I live, the head of the right-ish FDP (the libertarians, for want of a better synonym) is openly gay, as is the socialist mayor of Berlin (a Clinton-esque bloviator, oh well). But being gay has ceased to be a political issue, largely because of the right-of-center parties accepting the validity of gay rights.
In Holland Pim Fortyn, a gay populist, was assassinated for his defence of Western liberal democracy against the forces of Islamo-fascism.
Hopefully we’re getting to the point in the United States where being gay no longer means voting for one party, or belonging to the other party means being anti-gay.
I think the difference is that the right has more people who ascribe to the “leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone” philosophy than the left does.
The left seems to want everybody to act according to the preconceived mental template that they have for them. When someone comes along that doesn’t fit into their template (Gov. Palin, for instance) they utterly and completely flip out. The same happens, I think, with a gay person who has a generally conservative political outlook. You “shouldn’t think that way” so you don’t fit the template, so they attack on that basis.
On the other hand, those like me who more than anything else simply want to live our lives without undue intrusion and interference, your sexual orientation is simply not an issue.
I can only speak for myself, but that’s my thinking on why you as a gay Republican don’t pose any kind of threat, problem, or difficulty to me.
Howdy! Just skipped over from Instapundit. Always wondered: why would gay people want to have the government register homosexuals on marriage rosters? It used to be that you really couldn’t co-habit. Marriage was necessary for living together. Nowadays, nobody cares, and divorce really sucks. If you really want the joys of being legally locked into marriage, best of luck to you.
I see gay republicans as fellow soldiers standing with me desperately filling sandbags, holding back the flood of useful idiots. The only care I have regarding your orientation, is that my chances on Saturday nights with women are microscopically better. (There are no Homophobic economists…)
I agree. I am conservative, but times are changing. It is time for a mixing on this issue. Too long have gay issues divided politics. Liberal, Conservative, Republican, or Democrat; We are all Americans. Now let’s take the white house in November.