I made a new friend on the flight up: Rob Schlein, head of the Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas County. Rob and his partner flew up as guests of the GOP. As he explains in the short video interview below, the Log Cabin folks are no longer kept at the GOP's margins for the first time -- and this is because of John McCain reaching out to them.
This, I think, is a very good thing. Rob is still pro-Bush, and in some ways is more conservative than I am. I told Rob I take a contrary view to his on gay marriage, and that my chief concern was on the matter of religious liberty. I told him, and I think he agrees, that there are areas of agreement social conservatives and Log Cabin Republicans can find on more pragmatic concerns, e.g., hospital visitation rights, property rights and other things same-sex couples face. Rob said he'd like me to come speak to his group, and I told him I'd be pleased to. We both agreed that Sarah Palin is the bomb.
Watch this short interview I did with Rob. I ask him why he's as a gay man who's active in the GOP:
UPDATE: Looks like YouTube for some reason is having problems with the video. I'll see if I can fix it. Sorry!
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Daniel, if gays wouldn't spend so much time trying to persuade everyone that their "lifestyle" was normal (while many of them behave in public in a very abnormal way), regular folks would be happy. Even if regular folks consider their behavior to be sinful, we accept them as just another part of our community and are happy to leave the accounting to God.
Thank you, AML, for the voice of reason.
Homosexuality is a perversion and an aberrant behavior that is inherently sinful. I pity those who are caught up in it, but I am angry at those who would promote it as just another "lifestyle" for they are cultural insurgents bent on destroying common morality.
If gays would shut up about it, not one person in 100,000 would give a damn what they do in private.
For what it's worth, I served on my local and state Log Cabin boards several years ago. I stepped down partly because it felt like we were doing a lot to educate Republicans on gay issues, but not nearly enough to educate the gay community on Republican issues. I've been accused of being heteronormative (a hilarious word), which I happily accept. I don't really need to know or want to see what some people do in their bedrooms, and I don't think that flaunting that is a successful strategy for gaining acceptance. Oh well.
And to tie this in with another thread, I left the national organization when they decided to give an award to Andrew Sullivan. If he is what the organization wants to hold up as a model of a gay conservative, I don't want to have anything to do with them. We don't all think alike.
"I am angry at those who would promote it as just another "lifestyle" for they are cultural insurgents bent on destroying common morality."
Being married four times is a lifestyle I think both Catholics and Orthodoxers reject. Is Mickey Rooney a cultural insurgent?
I'm fine if it's just another lifestyle or another culture. It's the idea that it's more than that and we must celebrate, rather than just tolerate, that I have a problem with. People have free-will and all that. If they want to be atheist or eat Moose on Good Friday that's their right in a free society. They don't have the right to demand everyone agree with them or that everyone "celebrate our love." There's plenty of heterosexual love I'm not going to celebrate either.
All of you make me sick....I am a gay black man...and yes a republican.
You all make me ashamed to me a part of the GOP.
As a black man....I did not choose my color......as a gay man...I did not choose to be gay.......NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE DISCRIMATED AGAINST. God our savior created me in his image....and this is who I am. I have been with the same man for 10 years in a faithful relationship.....however you idiots would validate Brittney Spears many marriages before my one committed one. I am sick and tired of meeting hypocratical republicans and seeing those like those closeted gay congressman and preachers say that being gay is sinful and they are living it......
As I am a product of an interacial marriage....5 years before my birth...there was laws on the books saying that my parents union would be illegal...is that right....of course not...as my parents did not choose there race or their hetrosexuality.......as I did not choose my homosexuality.....so for all of you out there that do not feel that gays should have the right to get married...serve in our military or should not have the same legal rights....you are no better than your garden variety racist.....
The GOP will never get the votes of middle america, african american, and republican moderates if you all dont chill out and treat EVERY AMERICAN equally......The more concervatives support McCain...the more I am looking at Obama.....
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