Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) says supporting openly gay Republican Congressional candidate Richard Tisei would inevitably set back the fight for gay rights and has thrown his support behind Democratic — and straight — incumbent, Rep. John Tierney (D-MA).
Frank — who recently blasted the Log Cabin Republicans as “Uncle Toms” only to elaborate on his “admittedly very harsh criticism” — believes electing Tisei will give Republicans control of the house, effectively blocking the passage of any gay rights legislation.
The former prospective Lieutenant Governor of Massachussetts contends that as a member of the majority party he’ll be in a position to better influence the GOP on a number of issues, including gay rights. Tisei describes himself as a libertarian with conservative fiscal values who supports gay rights, access to abortion and apparently awkward displays of heterosexual affection.
jeff4justice
Dems should have worked harder to use their power after Obama won.
Why must we trade off marriage equality for NDAA, drone strikes, medical marijuana user attacks, and Monsanto taking over the FDA in this 2party system charade?
Dumdum
@jeff4justice: You are right of course.But if the Republicans control the house and senate we are all screwed.None of those pampered gun toting yacht sailing horse breeders give a rats ass for anyone other than themselves.At least Obama is trying to fix things.People want everything yesterday.Bush had 8 years to line the pockets of these fat cream licking cats.He set back environmental safe guards at least 10 years or more.our country is not run by the president but by lobbyists and corporations.And people can still get pot if they want it or need it.This is a two income household and it’s barely enough for us to get by.If our car breaks down then we are totally f*#ked.War is big business and there will never be a shortage of knuckle dragging hot headed fanatics to feul it.
jeff4justice
@Dumdum: Until we learn to un-occupy the 2party system how will things ever get better?
Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein (that 100% pro-equality doctor that LGBT blogs keep ignoring), is out there marching as she did with protests against foreclosures and with the teacher’s strike. Meanwhile Obama continues to ignore Occupy.
The alternative party candidates cannot get their message out to voters with media bias/blackout. The media always refers to them as spoilers or underdogs (as The Advocate recently did) conditioning voters to be afraid to voting for them.
They also do not take corporate donations so they are not corporate whores like Romney and Obama.
What’s more the Republicans are out there trying to get Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson off the ballot in swing states. And in Arizona the 2party system is trying to pass a top 2 general election law (lie they did here in CA) to effectively solidify rich candidates, incumbents, and also eliminate the competition.
If you had a business would you interview just 2 people?
Or would you interview several. It’s outrageous that the Presidential Debates are refusing to include at least Jill Stein and Gary Johnson unless they get to 15% in the polls – but that’s impossible because many polls exclude them and the media blackout/bias conditions voters to be afraid to vote for them.
It’s great Obama and the Democrats have finally come around to promoting marriage equality but it’s unacceptable that they are condoning NDAA, the kill list, drone strikes, NSA and FBI snooping, attacks on medical marijuana users and letting Monsanto takeover the FDA.
We LGBT folks want our allies to be bold and brave and to damn the consequences of supporting us. We want them to be principled. But yet we fail to stand by allies Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, or Rocky Anderson. We praise Jesse Ventura for coming out with an ad to oppose Minnesota’s marriage ban attempt but if he runs for President in 2016 as he says he’s considering will we stand with him? Or will we have no principles like Ted Olson helping anti-gay Paul Ryan try to win while fighting Prop 8 in court.
When we learn to become principled and brave voters then we’ll change the 2party system of endless war, poverty and erosion of civil liberties.
Until then we’re just making short-sighted tradeoff supporting Obama and hurting ourselves by condoning his NDAA, drone strikes, police state total surveillance society, and Monsanto takeover of the food supply.
Cam
@jeff4justice:
I’ll worry about that AFTER our civil rights are taken care of. But at this point, not voting democratic when the only other option is the GOP is harming ourselves.
As for Frank. My issue is, I would like a gay Congressman to win, HOWEVER, as a republican he will vote for John Boehner as Speaker of the House, and therefore, the Congressman’s views on gay issues are irrelevent because as Speaker Boehner is the one separately funding the Defense of DOMA when Obama told the DOJ not to defend it anymore.
So again, by supporting somebody who would vote for and support John Boehner for Speaker of the House would be harmful to gays.
Little-Kiwi
exactly, Cam.
it’s no use voting in “a gay guy” if he’ll be throwing his support and votes toward anti-gay policy.
him being gay isn’t the issue, it’s what kind of gay person and how he votes.
this is a no-brainer. for the first time in the history of America we have a sitting president and his administration who are actually championing Equality. yeah, this is the right time to do it.
brent
@Dumdum: What does the stuff you mention have to do with gay rights? There is no gay position on the economy or the environment. If you want to take that approach then i might say that Obama only cares about pleasing fat cat unions or the wackos at greenpeace.
Little-Kiwi
actually, there is a gay position on the economy. in the majority of States you can still legally be fired for being LGBT.
Obama supports ending that discrimination. The GOP doesn’t.
damn brent, it really must suck to be you.
Little-Kiwi
and “fat cat unions”? i’ve never met a union worker rolling in money the way the major corporations the GOP supports do.
i know that some of you have been spoon-fed meaningless buzz-terms from your fellow Conservatives but at some point you might want to be a real man, let your balls drop, and realize they’re full of shit.
fun fact – the reason the GOP is continuing to run an anti-gay campaign is because their fiscal policies will utterly screw over the lower and middle classes. that’s why they do it. they can’t say “Hi, we’re going to raise your taxes and lower them for millionaires, despite empirical evidence that doing so does not benefit the economy or the american worker” – so instead they say “Doesn’t the thought of two men marrying make you sick?!?!” and legions of stupid american conservatives say YES!!! and vote GOP. thus voting against their own economic interests.
and you gay republicans join in. this is why you’re not accepted, boys. you make it clear that you don’t deserve respect.
we liberals don’t have that problem.
brent
@Little-Kiwi: It’s always such a joy and pleasure to hear from you Little-Kiwi if that’s you’re name and you are who you claim too be.Did the log cabin’s not take on Obama over DODT or was that something i dreamed up?
Cam
@brent:
Brent, no, Log Cabin attacked Obama when he signed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. And Log Cabin endorsed the opponent of Rep Patrick Murphy, the Iraq War Vet who introduced the repeal of DADT. They cheered when he was defeated by the person they endorsed who was not very gay friendly.
Little-Kiwi
Brent, hating Obama won’t make your family hate you any less.
brent
@Cam: Correct me if i’m wrong, but did the log cabin group not file a suit against DADT in 2004? It then went to trial in 2010 and was opposed by the Obama admin. When Obama signed DADT the log cabins criticized him because it didn’t tak effect right away and people were still being expelled. This is info. you can find on wikipedia. Why don’t you look up log cabin republicans on wikipedia and see what it has to say about DADT.
brent
@Little-Kiwi: Little-Kiwi, will hating you make my family hate me less?
jeff4justice
@Cam: You do not have civil rights with NDAA and the total surveillance society. The 2party system rotates in cycles so all of that power will be in the hands of Republicans soon enough.
Vote as you wish.
I am not voting for Obama nor Romney.
tdx3fan
@brent: Those unions were what made this nation strong back when this nation was actually strong. It is the EPA that keeps corporations from completely destroying the environment (not that they are not still trying hard to do so). There is no official gay position on anything other than gay issues, but SHOCKING as it is, gay issues are NOT the most important thing that we need to worry about in this election season. I’ll worry about gay issues a lot more when the economy is actually fixed and people have actual jobs.
Not a single part of me wants to support or vote for Obama. I think he has been a horrible president. I think he is wrong on every single issue. I think it was ridiculous that we expanded unemployment compensation to three years while not emphasizing reeducation for the people on unemployment. I think it is ridiculous that we had an individual mandate while making health insurance less affordable. I think a lot of what Obama has done is ridiculous.
However, I could never ever bring myself to vote Republican, and I have a special loathing for Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney is an example of the very worst of the 1%. The problem is not with the 1%. The problem is with the 1% that doesn’t give a rats ass about the other 99% and Mitt Romney is definitely part of that.
I understand that voting third party is pointless, so I’m stuck with voting for Obama although I do not think he is a decent president. Hopefully, in four years I will have the decision to vote for someone I actually do like.
brent
@tdx3fan: You can vote for who you want to. My view on the EPA is that it is made up of bullies. The people who run the EPA will be aribtrary in thier use of power. They tend to go after a particular business or homeowner to se an example for everyone else.