Op ed: The GOP is not purely anti-gay (but it's leaders are)

The rank and file may not be.  But the folks running the GOP are.  And that's all that matters.

There's an op ed in the LA Times that's trying to argue that Republicans are not as monolithically anti-gay as they may seem.  And I'm sure that's true.  Republicans aren't as monolithically conservative as they may seem.  But that doesn't stop conservatives from running the party, and cutting moderates out of every leadership post and every major party or policy decision.

The problem with the Republican party is that it's only as diverse as its leadership.  The GOP is not the Democrats.  Democrats are cats, running every which way with 1,000 different viewpoints on what we should do today.  Republicans are North Korea - sure there are a lot of people who "probably" have varying views, but if any of them publicly express those varying views they'll get their heads chopped off.

While you have Democrats of all stripes willing to speak up and voice an opinion, moderates no longer exist in the GOP.  And to the extent they do exist, they sit back and shut up like good little drones, rather than doing something, anything, to help push moderation in their own party.

You can fault the Democrats for many things, but not having a strong liberal and conservative wing (DLC, Third Way) is not one of them.