Wednesday, February 25, 2004

gay republicans

I've never felt that one's political beliefs must correlate with one's race, religion or region. It is inherently racist to say that Clarence Thomas cannot be conservative because of his race (which is a different argument than disagreeing with his opinions or point of view).

Folk often giggle about the terms gay Republicans, but it makes sense that folks of a certain temperament and experience choose that party. To be honest, we will never get full civil rights for gay Americans without the support at some level of both parties. Gay people come in all stripes, including conservative and Republican. Of course.

And yet, on a day like to day, I wonder what those gay people who are working at the White House and on Capital Hill are thinking. I wonder what their straight co-workers are thinking. There are a lot of gay folk in DC, and while I have been away for 4 years, I bet there are many who have come in with this Administration or in Congress, however closeted they may be.

There are moments when folk struggle with their conscience and make a stand. I would guess that some people are struggling right now with the President's support to amend the U.S. Constitution to deny gay families equal protection under the law.

And if I were Karl Rove, I would particularly worry about it. Because when issues like this threaten people's lives, they come to different conclusions. I remember in Texas closeted gay folk on certain legislator's staff letting key people know when anti-gay things were about to happen. When you assume everybody is straight, you might be wrong.

Corporations long ago recognized if they were going to be competitive and get the best people they had to provide a welcome for gay employees. To not do so was to lose potential resources that additionally would benefit their competitors.

Here's to all those folks. May they have the courage to raise the knowledge level of politicians who think that their kind of folk aren't gay, and that if they are gay, that they are not bothered by actions like this.

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