GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Glenn Beck Begins (Continues) His Reinvention as a Man of the Left

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Glenn Beck tells the New Yorker that Barack Obama “made me a better man” and Michelle Obama is just awesome.  Also, he’s totally down with #BlackLivesMatter: Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon, baby!

Beck invited a number of Black Lives Matter believers on his show, where he “got to know them as people.” “These individuals are decent, hardworking, patriotic Americans,”

No, Glenn…. “decent, hard-working, patriotic Americans” do not raise up two-bit thugs like Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sylville Smith, and Freddie Gray … much less their POS parents who never gave a damn about them until they were dead and then cashed in on their corpses. “Decent, hard-working Americans” do not burn down neighborhoods and loot stores to “protest” when two-bit thugs get shot by police (or civilians they are the process of robbing or beating to death). The decent, hard-working Americans are in the cars trying to get to work or home to their families… not the a-holes that block freeways to prevent them from getting there.

We will see if going full SJW works as well for GB as it did for Charles Johnson. (Spoiler Alert: It didn’t. Little Green Footballs is now a cultish echo chamber, and Charles is reduced to begging for money on GoFundMe.)

Does intolerance of gay Republicans cause some erstwhile homocons to change* their political views?

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Every now and again, you meet a gay ex-Republican who tells you that he left the GOP because of the party’s intolerance.

Events this past week, however, have made it increasingly apparent that such folks left not because of the GOP’s supposed intolerance, but because of that they experienced in the gay community.  They were simply tired of being ostracized — and otherwise marginalized — for their political views.
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*(or hide)

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FROM THE COMMENTS:  Redneck Fag answers the title question in the affirmative:  “It happened to me when I was living in San Francisco during the Reagan years but it didn’t last long. I soon saw the problem: wanting to conform and be popular . . . .”

That does seem to be the problem.

Andrew Sullivan changes mind about first gay president,
now says it’s Obama (in 2010, he said it was Lincoln)

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Since we are perhaps the leading gay conservative blog, I supposed we’re supposed to chime in on the latest Newsweek cover story, given its gay theme and that is written by a prominent gay ex-conservative (still billed by some as a conservative).

I hate to disappoint our readers.  I have no intention of reading the cover story.  There are only so many hours in the day.  And, well, when it comes to Obama, Andrew Sullivan has become remarkably predictable.

Andrew once offered a fresh and unique insight into gay culture and American politics.  Now he just offers the party line.

Indeed, so goofy is he for Obama that he accords him an honor he once bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln.  In October 2010, he held that Abraham Lincoln was gay. And since Lincoln served roughly a century before Obama was born, that would make Obama the second gay president.

To call Obama a “gay president” is to ignore the first two years of his administration when he dragged his feet on repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT) and neglected to push Congress to act on DOMA repeal or civil union recognition.  A gay president would have made those issues a priority and would not have needed energetic left-of-center bloggers to spur him on.  Eventually, he did do the right thing on DADT — but only after considerable pressure from those bloggers.  He didn’t do much, if anything, to advance federal recognition of same-sex unions.

With that in mind, I have little interest in reading a piece by Andrew on Obama.  He sees the president not as he is, but as he would like the Democrat to be.

And reading Andrew Sullivan today is like returning to a beloved restaurant only to learn that they have taken all your favorite dishes off the menu and replaced them with the fare served at a chain restaurant, say Arby’s.

At Ace of Spades, Maetenloch offers a somewhat snarky spin, contending that “at this point“: [Read more…]

Andrew Sullivan defines GOP by its most extreme elements

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Had a reader not alerted me to Andrew Sullivan’s post excerpting my first post on Richard Grenell’s resignation, I might not have seen the link.  In his post, Andrew quotes me generously and acknowledged the challenges gay conservatives face:

I’ve only ever been a gay conservative (never a Republican), and back in the 1990s, it was brutal living in the gay world and challenging liberal assumptions. I cannot imagine the social isolation of Grenell in Los Angeles today, doing what he did.

Yes, it is brutal living in the gay world and challenging liberal assumptions, but a lot less so today, in large part due to Andrew’s own pioneering iconoclasm and his courage in standing up in the 1990s and into the 2000s to the gay bullies, continuing to speak out even as they vilified him.  We follow in his footsteps on the path he helped clear.

That said, Andrew goes to offer in trying to blame the whole mess on Republicans by the parting shot he offers at the end:  “I mean: what do Republicans call a gay man with neoconservative passion, a committed relationship and personal courage?”  The response he offers is not a pretty one.

Given that the Romney campaign expressed regret at Grenell’s departure and given the evidence that top aides to the former Massachusetts governor asked Grenell to change his mind and remain on the campaign — even enlisting conservative leaders in that effort — it seems that Republicans didn’t smear this supremely qualified foreign policy spokesman as Andrew suggests.  Quite to the contrary.  In making such an effort to keep him on the campaign, they showed how much they valued his experience and particular skill-set.

Instead of smearing an entire political party, Andrew should instead direct his fire at the handful of social conservatives who raised a ruckus at the appointment.  The Romney campaign may have handled this matter in a clumsy fashion, but they didn’t demonstrate any animus against a qualified individual because of his sexuality.

Andrew recalls the brutality of those who dared challenge the liberal orthodoxy.  He should not become like them and define an entire political party by its most extreme elements.

Coulter Foe Farah goes on gay-themed radio shows to fault conservatives for reaching out to gay conservatives

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It would happen on a day I’m going through the most tedious part of dissertation writing — doing the final edits (including drafting the “Works Cited” page) of a chapter — while having to do a pile of laundry, that all this news breaks relevant to our blog.

First, the loopy editor of World Net Daily goes on a gay-themed radio shows to “blast Ann Coulter for speaking to gay conservatives“:

Farah appeared on two radio shows that are hosted by gay talk show personalities this week to blast Ann Coulter for headlining an upcoming party sponsored by GOProud, an organization that represents gay conservatives. Farah dropped Coulter from a speaking engagement at WND’s annual conference in September because of her involvement with GOProud. Coulter retorted last week by calling Farah a “swine” and a “publicity whore.”

In response, Farah appeared on The Steve Yuhas Show Sunday and then gave an interview to host Michelangelo Signorile on Sirius’ gay themed channel, “OutQ” the next day. Farah told Signorile that he was fed up with the conservative movement, and criticized conservatives for embracing members of the gay community who share beliefs on issues like taxes, health care and the role of government.

That’s a doozy, talking to gay talk show hosts to chastise Coulter for talking to gay conservatives — while faulting the conservative movement for reaching out to their gay confrères.

The supposed right-wing publisher told the left-wing talk show host that since conservatism is always losing ground, “That’s why I don’t consider myself a conservative.”

And this also got me wondering:  Signorile has this loony-tune right-winger on his show, but does he ever invite gay conservatives on?  I mean, don’t you think he’d want to get the gay conservative perspective on this issue instead of trotting out a right-winger who’s a little extreme for most mainstream conservatives?

Our Debt to Andrew Sullivan

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In his piece on the HomoCon Tipping Point, Bruce writes

. . . formerly-conservative gay blogger Andrew Sullivan – never one to miss a chance to hammer the alleged intolerance of American conservatives – finally weighed in. Sullivan was completely silent about Sorba on Friday.  And Saturday.  But two days later, when he found a new angle, Sullivan couldn’t help himself.  The story was too juicy for even him to ignore and he joined the blogosphere left-wing media bandwagon since he knew the way the winds were blowing.  Nevertheless, Sullivan labeled Sorba “a glimpse into the future of Republicanism.”

Once again, to Andrew, I ask, “Show me the evidence.”  How did he reach this conclusion?  Attended any meetings of Republicans lately?  Walked any precincts for Republican candidates?  Interviewed Republican candidates?

Perhaps, instead of lambasting the GOP for its supposed intolerance of gay people, he should step back and realize his part in getting us to the tipping point.  No matter how obsessed he has become today with Sarah Palin’s womb and an imaginary Republican Party, his courage–and his outspokenness–in the 1990s made it easier for guys like Bruce and me to come out in Republican and conservative circles in the mid-1990s and today.

Andrew Sullivan was the first gay openly man to publicly challenge the left-wing gay orthodoxy from a very prominent platform.  He set an example; when we debated coming out as gay to our fellow conservatives or as conservative to our fellow gays, we knew we were not alone.  As the pioneer (to to speak), Sullivan took a lot of flak reserved for such individuals.  By the time we came out, a gay conservative was no long such a novel thing; fewer defenders of the orthodoxy reacted as vehemently as they did when Andrew first challenged their statist shibboleths. [Read more…]

Andrew Sullivan’s Prejudiced View of the GOP

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For as long as I’ve been blogging, longer even, for as long as I’ve been open about being a gay Republican, I’ve had left-wingers lecture me on how the GOP is controlled by religious zealots eager to do away with our freedom and create what some might call a “Christianist” state.  When I tell such folk that I’ve been involved not just in the GOP as an openly gay man, but have also participated in various conservative organizations, they seem little interested in my experiences, as if they just didn’t happen or are aberrations.

More often than not, these self-assured individuals so convinced about the real nature of the Republican Party and American conservatism have never met more than a handful of Republicans nor even attended a meeting of a Republican committee or auxiliary.  Such individuals are thus not qualified to talk about the GOP, much less address whether or not there is a place for gay people in the party.

With a prejudiced view of the GOP just like that of those individuals, Andrew Sullivan demonstrated his competence to serve on the Cato Institute panel addressing that very topic.  According to my friend Rick Sincere who attended the panel, the Obama-enamored blogger lambastedd the GOP:

Sullivan went on to criticize the Republican party for accelerating its “campaign of fear” against gay people and said the GOP “is no longer a political party; it is a religious party [whose members] owe absolute obedience to the President.” The Republican Party’s “soul has been corrupted,” Sullivan said solemnly.

Maybe he needs to say this to secure his place on the left, but this description has little resemblance to the party with which I’m familiar and in which I’ve participated (not to mention countless other openly gay men and lesbians).  Someone should have asked him where he derived his information.  Had he walked precincts with Republican volunteers, participated in GOP committee meetings, spoken to gatherings of Republican clubs?  Or had he read about it on left-wing blogs?

Andrew Sullivan was talking about a Republican Party which exists entirely in his imagination.

And while Andrew talked the conservative talk, opposing hate crimes laws, calling himself a Thatcherite, he refused to address his support for Obama’s program.   [Read more…]

Panel on Gay Conservatives Includes No Gay American Conservatives

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The Cato Institute has long been my favorite Washington D.C.-based think tank.  I don’t always agree with them on foreign policy, but do appreciate their commitment to freedom and their promotion of policies which seek to reduce the influence of the government in our lives.  When possible, I support their efforts, having given more to them than to any other policy organization in our nation’s capital.  And I appreciate the respect they show their donors.

Thus, I was disappointed to read that an event they are sponsoring, Is There a Place for Gay People in Conservatism and Conservative Politics?, does not include a single gay American conservative. Given that the lead panelist, Nick Herbert, who, we know from his very title, (MP [Member of Parliament], Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Conservative Party, United Kingdom) has experience working with a right-of-center party across the pond, you’ve got to wonder why they didn’t include someone who has had similar experience over here.

Instead, they’ve got someone who has spent the last six years (well, it will be six years a week from today) badmouthing the GOP.  Yes, that would be Andrew Sullivan.  Given that they’re holding this policy forum on the eve of CPAC that GOProud (which bills itself as representing “gay conservatives and their allies“) is sponsoring and where my co-blogger is speaking, they could easily find someone working within the conservative movement, someone who would have a less jaundiced view of American conservatives in general and the GOP in particular.

Now, this one panel won’t dampen my overall enthusiasm for Cato and their work, but it does call into question their judgment.  It’s as if they were caught in a time warp and were looking at an early 1990s roster of out gay conservatives.  That list has grown considerably since then.  And despite his claims, Andrew Sullivan’s name is no longer on it.

On the Origins of Andrew Sullivan’s PDS

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Sometime late last summer shortly after John McCain announced he had tapped Sarah Palin as his running mate, a reader e-mailed me a comment from Andrew Sullivan where that former conservative had kind things to say about the then-Alaska Governor.  “Even Sullivan likes her!” ran the e-mail.*

Soon thereafter not only would he drink the Democratic Kool-aid on Palin, but would become one of the most outspoken critics of this charismatic Republican woman, pushing strange theories about her youngest child.  Yesterday, Ann Althouse, wondered if Andrew “with the same intensity and standards” that he’s “aimed at Palin” would go “through the things Barack Obama has said and written”.

And I wondered if he had gone after Palin with such intensity to make up for the kind things he had once said about that accomplished woman.  He didn’t want it to appear that he was at odds with his post 02/24/04 friends on their villain du jour (well more like villain de la décennie).

You know, what they say about the zeal of a convert.

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