I have been following the scandal with Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu (who was recently outed as homosexual and had to resign from Romney's campaign in Arizona - google it), and it raised a very interesting question for me - can homosexuals in America be Republican? Sure, you'd say, gay conservatives have long been gathering around GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans, but there is - to my mind - a bigger problem here than finding the right group of conservatives who will accept you.
Whatever the Republican party used to be, it is clear to me that in recent decades it has progressively fallen victim to a fringe group - namely, the religious fantics. The situation has gotten to a point where a raving fanatic with medieval values like Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum can be the leading candidate for a president of the country, and moderate conservatives are left with no voice in a party that is supposed to represent them (another problem of course stems from the fact that GOP was always dedicated to serving a very small ultra rich elite, but that is neither here, nor there). As a result, the Republican party's platform is openly and viciously homophobic, barely making a half-hearted attempt at masking its bigotry behind biblical law and "traditional values" and ignoring every sane argument that people bring in response.
Because it isn't about values anymore, or about views. It's about electorate. GOP can no longer afford to part with the fanatical extremist element, as that would literally split it in half. It would take years for it to restore itself to any political relevancy, and by then it won't be one of two, but probably one of THREE major parties.
So what alternative do gay conservatives have? Who should those, whose views of economics and politics differ drastically from the Liberals', vote for? Naturally, they should give their support to the party that represents those views best, yes?
No.
There is a line, and when that line is crossed, political beliefs MUST step back in favor of dignity and self-respect. When a party is trying to deny you equal rights, when its officials can openly state that you are a mental disorder, that what you are asking for is a privilege, and if it were given to you, it should be given to pedophiles and necrophiles as well, you cannot say "I support those people" and claim to have any respect for who you are.
Yes, I am aware of how for many gay people (and MOST gay conservatives, it seems) being gay is "just one more thing, it doesn't define me, I hate gay culture" and blah blah blah. But internalized homophobia aside, you ARE what you are. If you have accepted yourself as a homosexual, how can you support someone who openly despises you? Of course, you'll say, not everyone in the GOP is homophobic, many of them support gay rights to a moderate extent. But the question is are those people in a position to change things? Does their existence mean we will see LGBT equality should their party be put in a position of power? I think we all know the answer to that question.
So, to answer my own question, I think that gay conservatives in modern day America simply do NOT have a political alternative. The GOP definitely does not represent their interests. In the end, I don't expect any gay Republican to agree with me, but in my eyes a homosexual who supports the GOP because of what it stands for in political and economical terms, is almost as absurd as an animal-loving Jew in the time of the Third Reich, who supports Hitler for his views on animal rights. Make of that what you will.
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