Andrew Sullivan had an interesting link to a San Francisco Chronicle account of the Austin 12, a group of 12 gay Republicans who met with then Governor George Bush iin 2000 to get Bush's attention on gay issues. The article notes that early in the Bush Adminstration, the President did make some headway concerning gay issues including, appointing an openly gay person as AIDS czar. But Bush turned sharply to the right in 2003 and has in pretty much ruined any chance that the GOP can make some inroads in the gay community for decades to come. Here is the money quote:
"Members of the Austin 12 interviewed by The Chronicle ascribe the president's decision to back the same-sex marriage ban to a political calculation: The 1 million gays and lesbians who voted for Bush in 2000 are outnumbered by the 4 million evangelicals who stayed home."
Now, I don't think that Bush is a homophobe. But what Bush has done is far worse than any bigot could have ever done: he sold out. He saw the numbers and figured that the 1 million gay people who voted for him in 2000 were expendable. He allowed the forces that preach hate to spread their venom and harm a whole group of people just so he could get elected. Nothing personal, he just wanted a second term.
Bush's cowardice may prove harmful for the GOP in the future. As more and more gay men and women come out to their families, friends and workmates, the general public will become more tolerant of gays and less tolerant of bigots. At some point, the GOP's "family values" will be seen in the same light as we see those who held racist views 40 years ago: as a bunch of small-minded jerks.
Posted by Dennis at October 11, 2004 10:29 PMssk
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Posted by: NBA Basketball Betting at October 26, 2004 09:53 PMlet the villagers raise someone elses kids.
The President feels the same way you do Mike, that's why he called his education plan No Child Left Behind
family values = state rights???
i live in NY and I will raise my own children, thanks anyways.
it doesnt really take a village - it takes parents. let the villagers raise someone elses kids.
Posted by: mike at October 12, 2004 10:34 AMfamily values *may* equal states' rights, but there are federal constitutional limits about that kind of thing, no? Checks and balances, and all that.
GOP Senate candidate in Oklahoma speaks of rampant lesbianism in schools
In the tape released by the campaign of Brad Carson, the Democratic candidate, Coburn says a campaign worker from Coalgate told him that "lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/11/politics2023EDT0704.DTL
We are nothing if not a tolerant and fair nation. It's in our bones. It's what makes America, America. We advance by fits and starts but tolerance and fairness is the great, blessed arc of our common story.
Joe McCulley, school superintendent in Coalgate, chuckled when asked about Coburn's remark.
"He knows something I don't know. We have not identified anything like that. We have not had to deal with any issues on that subject -- ever," McCulley said.
Insist on a different arc, and you eventually disappear from the story line.
Posted by: dorsano at October 12, 2004 12:49 AMDennis:
Re: Your last paragraph . . .
Family Values = States Rights
-- Charlie Mehler
Posted by: Charlie Mehler at October 11, 2004 10:35 PM