Photo credit: Benson Kua
Sometimes, it’s awkward to be gay. It has nothing to do with LGBTQ-ness as such, but rather with the peculiar and indecent fetish practices by some of our own. Last week, we heard the embarrassing news that the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay right wing, endorsed you know who. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise—gay Republicans have an unflinchingly dogmatic and masochistic belief their money and privilege trump their (and our) greater good.
They explained their endorsement with a lauding litany of the reasons why, over a year before the 2020 presidential election, they had already pronounced their groveling fealty to the regime. They mentioned its leader had fulfilled his promises to the LGBTQ community. Yet, one would be hard-pressed to find proof of that among a cabinet of homophobes, the dozens of anti-LGBTQ bills before municipal, state and federal governmental bodies, the appointment of dozens of anti-LGBTQ federal judges, the full-throttled advance of religious freedom laws that allow discrimination against LGBTQs (and, in some cases, Jews and Catholics) and its support of homophobic regimes like Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Granted, the gay right does crinkle its nose at the regime’s strident anti-trans campaign, but they can boast about the gay man appointed ambassador to Germany (who instantly offended his host country by supporting Europe’s right-wing extremists).
One often wonders why there is even such thing as gay Republicans. I presume most were raised in wealthy, white, Christian, Republican “family value” households where parents complained about taxes, regulations and evil liberals at dinner table conversations; or perhaps they were raised in working class families in which a loud and toxic “show us your titties” masculinity pervaded.
Both environments must have been hellish for the budding LGBTQ member of the family. Some, I’m sure, subscribed to the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” Stockholm syndrome strategy of survival and became exemplary GOP tiki-torch bearers hoping for a quid pro quo of love and acceptance. It rarely works. One gay Republican I know inadvertently outed himself to his parents while in college. Decades later, when he told his mother he had a surprise to share, she replied, “you’re finally seeing a therapist?” Thanks, mom.
Anyway, the local Log Cabin Republican cell is admittedly small, but its actions are still exasperating. To each their own, of course, but is it really necessary to donate to politicians whose records are so blatantly anti-LGBTQ? I suppose they rationalize giving $100 here, $1,000 there, if the payback could be lower taxes or a better stock return. They also rallied around Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, whose virulently homophobic writings as a Marquette student should have disqualified her from receiving any LGBTQ support when she ran for office. It appears gay Republicans had high hopes for some financial benefit, even if it meant throwing everyone else under the bus. Now, with another homophobic conservative Justice, Brian Hagedorn, on the bench, positive outcomes for LGBTQ issues before the court seem unlikely.
One can take some solace in the fact the regime has yet to officially acknowledge the endorsement. Apparently, it’s as perplexing to them as it is to us.
