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Donald Trump at Log Cabin Republicans
The great gay bard, Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For the writer, the same may be said of not being read. I am pleased to acknowledge I am, in fact, being read. One reader even took it upon himself to send me the following message: “Instead of wailing to high heaven about how any gay man, lesbian or even trans individual dare be a conservative, why don’t you consider reaching out, you know TALKING to some of us.”
He is from Ecuador, by the way. You know Ecuador, where the nuts come from. Oh wait, sorry, that’s Brazil. Ecuador is where, not surprisingly, the bananas come from, and, of course, cocaine. I’m sure it is charming place. I once had a colleague from Quito, in fact, and she was charming … and talkative.
Still, if you are one of those who, like me, have contemplated a move to more queer friendly climes in case of a successful White Christian Nationalist coup, Ecuador may not be your best bet. While it recognizes LGBTQ rights and marriage equality to a certain degree (no adoption rights for same-sex couples, for example), as a machismo driven, conservative Christian country, it has its anti-LGBTQ detractors. Besides, due to a quasi-civil war, the entire nation is under a “state of internal armed conflict,” as they call it. Romantic moonlight walks along the border where one risks stepping on a landmine are therefore ill-advised.
We Once Were Civil
To be honest, I found it presumptuous to imply that I haven’t had or currently have conservative friends, colleagues, teammates or dalliances. In fact, I once did and we talked about these things. Admittedly, I no longer do. Back in the pre-Obama days of civility, when the LGBTQ community was still more or less united in its struggle for equality, gay Republicans seemed benign enough. They would awkwardly advocate their “change from within” strategy, believing they could inspire their homophobic party to become a diversity embracing big tent, all the while joining the conservative chorus complaining about taxes and welfare queens (the poor, not the gay ones). For its part, the GOP shunned them.
Today, more than ever before, the Republican war on the LGBTQs has only intensified. There are still diehards, though, among them the gay, white and wealthy Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) whose unflinching devotion apparently knows neither moral nor financial bounds. LCR’s Palm Beach Chapter recently paid Melania Trump an eye-roll inducing $237,500 for a brief speaking engagement.
Meanwhile, one need only look to Project 2025, that conservative Heritage Foundation’s Orwellian “Presidential Transition Project” handbook for turning the country into a fossil fuel guzzling White Christian Nationalist state, to argue the senselessness of any talk of “talk.” One quote quite clearly defines its plan for the abrogation of LGBTQ and women’s rights. “The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists,” it declares.
1984 is on the Calendar
Aside from the mind-boggling “1984”-esque Newspeak of depriving First Amendment rights of some in order to defend the First Amendments rights of others, foreboding is the phrase “Starts wit h…” That implies a much grander plan to come, namely a second “Lavender Scare.” This time, however, as a full-blown government policy of unfettered discrimination and social exclusion to erase LGBTQ rights and identity.
In fact, the leaked Project 2025 training videos, designed to groom those appointed to take over tens of thousands of government positions, exhorts them to purge “the noxious tenants of gender identity,” declaring “equity has infiltrated into everything” and proclaiming “all equity plans will be eradicated!”
It is no surprise that the conservative, virulently homophobic and Hitler-inspired “Moms for Liberty” is on Project 2025’s advisory board. Unsettling, too, is the belief by 28% of Republicans that political violence (read terrorism, i.e. January 6) is justified to achieve political aims. Don’t forget, hate crimes increased by 32% under the last Republican regime. Meanwhile, there is a little noticed Republican plan to convene an Article V Convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. It is yet another strategy for the GOP to wrest total power by changing our governing document itself. Nineteen of the 34 states (including Wisconsin) required to call such a convention are already on board.
Gay Influencers?
So just whom do I “talk” to among gay conservatives about their embrace of all of this? The fey Senator Lindsey Graham? Or perhaps gay conservative influencer Dave Rubin? By the way, Rubin is listed in the Department of Justice’s probe into Russian election interference. He is identified as a participant (among other MAGA sycophants, including Lara Trump, Kari Lake, et al) who, in Judas manner, spread Russian anti-LGBTQ and pro-Trump propaganda for money. He claims to have been duped (of course).
I might talk with some of my conservative gay “friends” on social media who share ugly memes attacking President Biden, a leader in LGBTQ rights advocacy, while praising Trump as their God-sent Messiah. Ironically, one is a witless drag queen who seems oblivious to the fact that she is a primary target for Republican hate. With days to go before we vote, the “talk” is pointless.
As Wilde’s Lady Augusta Bracknell might say, “to vote once for Trump may be misfortune, but twice is carelessness. Three times is self-loathing lunacy.”
