The LGBT-Republican Narrative

Jim_Kolbe

Jim_Kolbe

The amount of people who believe that it is impossible for someone to be both a supporter of gay marriage and a member of the Republican Party is truly staggering. When revealing this perceived contradiction, the replies often go something along the lines of:

“Well you can’t really support gay marriage then.”

“If you’re a Republican you’re against gay marriage because the Republican Party is and you’re enabling them.”

The liberal media has sold and resold the narrative pushed by the Democratic Party that all Republicans hate everyone in the LGBT community. The people who swallow the propaganda of MSNBC and the other “politically correct” news sources go out into the world and are shocked to find that the narrative is pure fiction. A variety of opinions exist within the Republican Party on this issue.

Consider this, there is an entire organization called the Log Cabin Republicans. The self-described mission of this organization to, “advance the interests of the gay and lesbian community within the Republican Party of the United States of America.”

Consider that there have been prominent Republican members of Congress who are gay. They have not, as liberals will lead you to believe, been ousted from the Party after coming out. Jim Kolbe of Arizona was elected to the House of Representatives starting with the 1984 election. He came out as gay in August of 1996, and went on to be elected to five more terms. In 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention.

Consider that Dick Cheney first stated his support of gay marriage in 2004. This was while he was still Vice President, and was contrary to the views held by the Bush administration. This was years before the likes of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, while John Kerry still only supports civil unions.

The Democrats push this narrative of the Republicans blanket hate of the LGBT community not as a service to that community or the ideals of truth, but because it suits what they believe to be their political interests. The leaders of the Democratic Party have gotten it into their heads that the LGBT community and its supporters are all one-issue voters. If the Democratic Party promotes the perception that Democrats alone support gay marriage, then all of the LGBT community and its supporters will vote Democratic. For some reason, the Democrats fail to take into account that the LGBT community also have diverse interests in multiple issues such as the economy, foreign policy, and many more.

People are not, and cannot afford to be, one-issue voters. It is not necessary for people to conform to either party’s platform ten times out of ten, and the assumption that one issue out of ten is enough to push someone one way or another is spurious.

Even the one-issue voter myth were true, the Democratic Party and the liberal media continue to portray the Republican Party as ideologically unwavering, despite a rising tide of support for gay marriage within the party. Groups such as the long established Log Cabin Republicans, and the newer Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry are working from within the party to change the Republican platform. They do this because they agree with most of the party’s stances on issues, and want to change the one. If most of the ship is fine, it does not do to abandon it because the rooms are somewhat too small.