I Will Never Understand Gay Republicans! — Page 2

i agree with JRB. i think thats the best way i could have put it... perfectly said.

and come to think of it... i'm not sure i have any close friends who dont agree with gay marriage... hmmm... never really thought about it, but now that i do, i think all my friends support gay marriage... definitely several relatives who dont... but kind of bound to them by blood, that whole deal... haha

Updated On: 2/27/08 at 11:47 AM

cuban, next time ask your mom how she would like it if we passed some laws based on the Hindi religion that she must follow. They're citizens too...

should i stop speaking to my mother now because she doesnt agree with me? course not... i grit my teeth and move on... haha... knowing that deep down i am right and she is wrong...

Well, that sounds healthy.

It is possible her opinion could change. My grandmother is a TurboCatholic. Mass every day and twice on Sundays. Extremely conservative and fanatically religious. I even remember at my grandfather's funeral, the priest telling us the reason my grandfather was going to Heaven was not because he was a good Christian, but because he was a Catholic. That was the last time I set foot in that church.

She was resolutely anti-gay for as long as I could remember. But even as late as in her 70s, she slowly started changing. She started asking questions and gathering information. And she started to really view the Bible in a more objective manner. Actually paying attention to what it says rather than be told what it means. She is now fully in favor of equal rights for gay unions. She still believes the word "marriage" is a religious term and does not include gay couples (which is actually correct), but she does believe gay couples should have the opportunity to be legally recognized with the exact same rights as "married" (i.e. heterosexual) couples.

People can change. Gritted teeth and silence do nothing to educate, enlighten or help anyone. It only perpetuates the ignorance and contributes to problem.

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Updated On: 2/27/08 at 11:51 AM

Mister Matt, if that was my grandmother I would be prouder than proud! GREAT story!

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Good for you, MM. And good for your grandmother.

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Hyperbole aside, the recurring theme here is FEAR (in some cases a delusional fear of a loved one not making it into Heaven). I'm atheist btw.

We have to be willing to reach out to others who may be grappling with fear. Mister Matt wrote: “Gritted teeth and silence do nothing to educate, enlighten or help anyone.” Many of the fearful have been taught practically all their lives that homosexuality is an aberration and sin. A lot of damage has been done since Gutenberg made God's Word accesible to the largely uneducated masses in the 15th century.

Liverpool—you are fairly young still with all due respect. You’re going to have to develop patience because the kind of change you seek is not going to happen overnight. To make a remark such as “you don't have to stop speaking to your mother cuban, but i want nothing to do with her.” is catchy around here but his mom could be your next employer or someone beneficial in your future…. No man is an island, entire of itself…

In the US, we all have “freedom of association” per the Constitution. The only thing that has barred me from joining the Republican Party is that I am pro-choice and pro-single sex civil union. I am vehemently conservative fiscally but a social moderate. Since politics is about compromise, I'm willing to negotiate on the other hot button items.

I honestly suspect that gays (and their sympathizers including me) are going to have to be the most civilly disobedient group in the history of the Republic to bring about the sea change necessary to obtain full rights as citizens and residents. I still don’t understand how this issue of “same-sex marriage” never came up in the 20 DEMOCRATIC primary debates that we’re all suffered. Perhaps I missed the discussion.

I write all this to say that “politics is about compromise”. Let’s pick out battles carefully and fight to the death. This is war that must be waged on several fronts, economically, philosophically, community-wide, within our families (and selves) and of course politically.

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some people value their tax cuts more than their dignity. In my experience most Republicans can be very nice about the whole issue on a personal level, even the ones who are otherwise out there actively shoving a knife into our collective back with legal challenges and at the polling booth. When it comes to Republicans there's a lot of truth to a line I remember from Queer as Folk that went something like, "if they don't despise you to your face, they despise you behind your back."

And as for Log Cabin Repubs and others of their sorry ilk, they have made a choice to trade honesty and equality for material gain or some twisted economic libertarian dream of no taxes and little or no government. And then I think that there are some who actually get off on being a barely tolerated minority. They'd rather be inmate trustees at a prison camp than live as free men and women.

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And some are MUCH larger than others.

To play Devil's Advocate, at least with the Republicans you KNOW where you stand with them. I feel with the Democrats, they will smile at us and promise things to get the Gay Community to vote for them and then kind of sell us out, DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, anyone?

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Gay People can be crazy too!

You're right, chanteuse. The actual phrase is not in the constitution. The phrase that is generally interpreted to imply separation of church and state comes from the First Amendment of the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" There are many other things in the constitution, as you say, that support this principle.

Referencing the the above noted phrase from the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote, coining the phrase: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

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funny that the 2 things you claim are fundamental republican issues are the 2 things tehy've done the least of in the last 8 years.

the republicans are the party of Big Government now. And their attempts to legislate private issues is all the evidence you need.



also as i stated before, anyone who votes FOR republicans, votes AGAINST homosexuals.