The truth is that as a community, we ridicule gay Republicans at every turn. We wonder how they reconcile their sexual orientation with supporting a party that is quite obviously contemptuous of it; we chuckle at every awkwardly worded press release sent out by the Log Cabin Republicans or GOProud after the GOP takes yet another draconian, anti-marriage-equality stance; and we use terms like "self-hater" or "sellout" to demonize those in our community who have decided to take a political route that is outside the norm.Why do we ridicule gay Republicans?
It remains deeply unfortunate that for anyone who isn't a heterosexual white male, the choice between political parties remains such a stark one, but the idea that it is only they who have true freedom of choice is downright offensive, and that's the idea that we put across when we ridicule and demonize gay Republicans. Are we afraid of them because it's possible that they are what we could become? Is it so farfetched to imagine an exodus of wealthy, well-heeled gays to the Republican side of the aisle once the battle for marriage equality reaches its inevitable conclusion? I don't think so. In fact, I think that could very well be where the more influential and privileged among us are headed.
Um, because they're willing to elect people who hate them? People who want to ensure that they never get the right to marry? People who want to take their children away from them? People who think they're diseased, and perverted, and going to hell, and if they had their way we'd all be self-deported to a desert isle (or worse)? Because in the end they have no self-worth and are actively working to harm rest of us?
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the show?
Let's revisit one line from that post:
[T]he idea that it is only [heterosexuals] who have true freedom of choice is downright offensive, and that's the idea that we put across when we ridicule and demonize gay Republicans.You bet it's offensive that one party hates us and the other doesn't so we don't have a real choice come election time. But that's not our fault. It's the fault of the party that hates us and gives us only one choice.
Sometimes the message is distasteful because it's true.
