Gay Republicans, A Reprise

I know, I know, Sen. Larry Craig is not gay. He said so, three times. And of course he did NOT do what he plead guilty to have done. Right. I guess we will all be treated to ongoing discussions and reports of what did or did not happen in that airport bathroom.

Which has reminded me of a similar story last year regarding an evangelical leader caught engaging in certain extra marital trysts with young men. It was so much fun watching all the writhing and hand wringing and personal agony over that matter it seems time to do it again.

And so, I remembered something I wrote last October. The situation was different, but I wish to offer a reprise of comments made then regarding men who are either gay and Republican, or participating in some homosexual activities, and Republican.

These men have varied backgrounds. Many are married and thus cheating on their wives. I think that that is an issue of some significance, but what are we doing to “out” cheating heterosexuals, Republican or Democrat, or cheating by ostensibly monogamous gay partners?

It seems that to many people it is just about impossible to be a gay Republican with any integrity. I do not agree, and I am neither gay nor a Republican.

There is a basic principle that many gay men and women themselves are anxious to establish – and that is that gay people are people too. OK, obvious point. But there is nothing inherent to being gay that would lean one away from a conservative political philosophy. Or is there a liberal gene that goes with the gay gene? Thinking of classic conservative principles I see no reason why a gay person could not be persuaded of these as much as a non gay person. Granted, the Republican party is mushy on those principles these days, but why could a gay person not lean toward less government, more state’s rights, protection of unborn children, a stronger military, educational vouchers, etc.

So, what if a gay person finds himself to be for the most part in keeping with a party that is politically conservative. So what? I would think some gay people like Italian food and some like Mexican food.

But what to do given that the Republican Party is opposed to the “gay agenda.” What is a gay Republican to do? I would think that he or she) has several options.

First, he may just take the bad with the good, live with the dilemma, and for the sake of his standing and influence amongst conservatives, just not focus much attention on the issues important to the gay lobby. He may well be open about being gay, work toward the other issues consistent with his conservative values, but just not actively support anti gay rights initiatives.

Second, he may, despite his private predilections, actually oppose gay marriage. It is quite possible that a person would see as not in the public interest things that are true about himself. Rather than being a sign of some deep troubling psychological pathology, this might simply be good sense. I am sure that there are a lot of straight men (let’s say they are not married) who do not think cohabitation laws are in the public interest, yet they may be promiscuous rascals. It does not go without saying that one’s private predilections should form the basis of one’s public policy. I wonder what JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. would have to say about that.

Third, he may, like many other people on a thousand issues, merely be a hypocrite. Well, if we’re outing hypocrites, let’s get busy and clean out the majority of the people who are in office. We could start with environmentalists, who seldom live daily lives consistent with their own public policy positions. We might start with Al Gore and John Edwards and go from there. Hypocrisy stinks, but it is an equal opportunity employer. I would imagine that many avid vocal supporters of gay marriage and gay monogamy are themselves promiscuous. We can throw them out too.

I don’t like hypocrisy, in myself, or in others, but let’s apply the hypocrisy ruler equally across the board. I don’t see that happening.

Fourth, related but slightly different from the first point, a gay Republican may feel that he has no future in the system if he is outed, so he leads a double life. That is, he may be a true conservative, yet may otherwise wish for more liberal marriage laws, but he knows that it won’t get him far in the party and there are so many other things that he is passionate about he just keeps his mouth shut. He is not really allowed by the system to vote his conscience. Well, welcome to politics. Is this not the case time and time again for so many people regarding so many issues? I would wish more politicians were free to buck the party line and vote their conscience on a number of issues.

Fifth and finally, the man may be cheating on a wife, advocating anti gay marriage in public meetings, and holding himself up as a standard bearer of traditional values, yet practice a gay lifestyle. This is a higher level of hypocrisy, because it both involves cheating on a vow and making oneself out to be what one certainly is not.

But I ask, do we really care about cheating and high level hypocrisy per se, across the board? Do gay rights advocates care about these same issues as perhaps may involve themselves in other respects, or may involve other more liberal politicians on other issues? Do heterosexual partisan conservatives not delight to dig up dirt on their Democratic opponents?

I'd like to see the hypocrisy standard applied evenly across the board if it is to be applied, and less attention given to people's private sex lives generally, whether day or straight, Democrat or Republican.