He might be a staunch Republican funneling some $400 million to conservative causes and candidates, but David Koch—one-half of the billionaire Koch Brothers who—told Politico, “I believe in gay marriage.”
When reporter Kenneth Vogel reminded Koch that Mitt Romney and the Republican Party want to ban same-sex nationwide with a federal amendment, Koch bluntly replied, “Well, I disagree with that.”
One of the biggest philanthropists in America, Koch–a former Libertarian–also supports stem-cell research and is a huge patron of the arts..
This is one of the great ironies of the Republican Party: It’s powered by two factions that seem content to ignore each other—educated, wealthy businessmen with some moderate-to-liberal social values and lower-to-middle evangelical Christians rallying behind God and guns.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The former is a lot easier to win over than the latter.
The Real Mike in Asheville
That he supports gay marriage is irrelevant since he is an enabler of anti-gay bigots. He places his greed for more money and power over the moral standards of our great nation — that we are all entitled to pursue our own happiness.
Neo
@The Real Mike in Asheville: Yup, incredibly rich man finding bigotry in making a big PR statement while his ethics, workings and reality all point to the contrary.
People are buying that it was Obama who destroyed the world economy, so you can fool some of these people all of the time, and shame on them too.
Neo
@The Real Mike in Asheville: Yup, incredibly rich man funding bigotry in making a big PR statement while his ethics, workings and reality all point to the contrary.
People are buying that it was Obama who destroyed the world economy, so you can fool some of these people all of the time, and shame on them too.
bystander
Hey, Look, Its a power wealthy republican who supports an important party of what we want. Let’s spend some time bashing his brain in. #FAIL
bystander
*part
bystander
There are far too many gay who Hate Republicans and Conservative more than they support marriage equality.
brent
@The Real Mike in Asheville: the same could be said of giving money to the democrats since you enable blacks and latinos who havw shown that they are very bigoted when it comes to gays.
brent
The article says it is a great irony that two factions of the republican party hold different views but ignore each other. Does the guy or woman who wrote this article think the democrats are different. You have a pro gay wing and then you blacks and latinos who hate gays. same thing?
The Real Mike in Asheville
@brent: Brent, yes indeed Democrats have often been Demoncrats just as Republicans are now Rupugnantans. It was Bill Clinton who weaseled DADT and DOMA into law; its was W. Bush who used anti-same-sex marraige to fuel his elections.
BUT BUT BUT — that is not the full story today.
Republicans/Romney = enact a federal constitutional amendment voiding tens of thousands of marriages and denying marriage for all gay and lesbian Americans
VERSUS
Democrats/Obama = repeal DOMA and support the rights of ALL Americans, gay and straight, to marry the person of their choice.
THATS A BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE!!!
gattsuru
This isn’t exactly news, either specifically in regards to David Koch or in the more general case. Reason, one of the more direct Koch outlets, has been pro-gay marriage since at least 2003, trying to draw Hayek as a pro-gay marriage writer even then. Nor are they alone on such matters: despite Ayn Rand’s many, many flaws as a writer and a philosopher and a human being, she was willing to speak up for gay men despite her own homophobia at a time when even Massachusetts criminalized gay sex.
The separation of “educated, wealthy businessmen with some moderate-to-liberal social values and lower-to-middle evangelical Christians rallying behind God and guns” is also a bit off the mark. The Koch Brothers — and Ayn Rand, and Glenn Reynolds, and the overwhelming majority of the moderate-to-liberal social values group — are pro-gun, and indeed are often more reliably pro-gun than the evangelical Christian faction. Meanwhile, the social-conservative bunch have a lot of Fuddites and outright antigun folk: even many of the Talk Show soc-cons are pretty happy with restrictions on gun ownership, even if they rant about Obama taking guns away on occasion.
Spike
Sure he does, and the people he hoping to elect don’t, so his opinion is N/A.
erics
@bystander Its irrelevant what he says when his actions support our continued exclusion
@brent blacks and latinos don’t hate gays. Both the NAACP and LULAC have issued statements in support of marriage equality. The main contradiction I see is the reverse: white gay people don’t care about blacks and latinos, and in fact make racist statements like yours instead.
John Doe
I have yet to find a major campaign contributor of either party that I agree with completely. Soros and Koch are both billionaires that fund campaigns and politics to promote their own ideologies. Dont’ forget that Soros was convicted of insider trader and is involved in hedge funds and currency speculation. Aren’t these the things all politicians are saying have caused the financial crisis we’re in? Yet politicians love his donations.
PTBoat
@The Real Mike in Asheville: With millions and millions of dollars against gay people.
PTBoat
Koch money dwarfs Soros money for political maneuvering, besides, at least Soros isn’t trying to limit civil rights with his. By the way, if you’re watching Fox News, you’re watching convicted felons act as pundits.
LadyL
What convenient timing. Could this possibly be, oh, I don’t know, a transparent attempt to woo the votes of gay Wall Streeters?
Or one of the Kochs is about to be outed.
FStratford
I call BS on this.
Until he gives money to Pro gray marriage groups – more than he has given to NOM and FRC, this is just all talk and people should call Koch out for being a liar (words not the same as actions)
hf2hvit
what a load
MK Ultra
Sorry Koch.
Almost doesn’t count.
n900mixalot
@brent: And gays toward Asian and Black people, and heavy people, and people with bad skin, and lesbians toward men–in general whether gay or straight, and everyone against transgendered people.
gattsuru
@LadyL: It’d be rather weird for convenient timing, since both of the Kochs have been beating this particular drum for nearly a decade.
@FStratford: The Kochs … haven’t given to NOM or the FRC. They’ve had Ted Olson — of anti-Prop 8 lawsuit fame — on retainer and paid. And obviously Cato and Reason are pro-gay marriage. So, they’ve kinda done that.
hephaestion
So why isn’t he giving a few billion dollars to make marriage equality a reality?
hephaestion
Cato Institute isn’t for gay marriage. I haven’t checked recently, but they used to have extremely vile lies about gay people on their web site. Shit like pseudo-studies by discredited closet case Paul Cameron saying that 17% of gay people ate feces, if I remember correctly. The Cato folks deny this now, I believe, but I vividly recall printing that crap out and sending it to mortified friends at the time.
brent
@LadyL: Why does it have to have an ulterior or sinister motive?
brent
@The Real Mike in Asheville: He did repeal DOMA, but i don’t think his position on marriage is that big of deal, it pretty much is in line with the position Dick Cheney already took. Also he still believes its a state issue so i don’t see what has changed. You still have to convince voters in each state to support it.
Rockery
umm whatever
jwrappaport
Yawn. David Koch and the rest are content to let us eat cake, so there it is.
Also, Queerty: stop capitalizing the word god. This isn’t 1950. I’d level some postmodern accusation like Christeonormativity, but I don’t think they’ve invented it yet.
FStratford
@gattsuru:
Per NOM’s records, about 90% of its funds came from 2 individuals. This is circa 2 years ago – and in political circles, it was whispered that these 2 millionaires are the Koch prothers.
Enough said.
Unless they put their money where their mouth is, it’s all a lie (I can believe in a change of heart but there’s gotta be proof of it)
Neo
@jwrappaport: The odd part is, I just read christeonormativity like it was a word I’ve always known o.O
@FStratford: Agreed, all the evidence, his money, speeches and actions are anti gay marriage, this stinks of desperate PR and nothing more.
The Real Mike in Asheville
@brent: ???? DOMA is the law and has not been repealed, so I have no idea who the “he” is you are referring to.
gattsuru
@hephaestion: Uh, got a link? Cause I am not finding anything like what you suggest, haven’t seen anything like that in over half a decade of reading their pages, and the closest a search for gay marriage-related stuff goes shows a hell of a lot of pro-gay marriage stuff with a sprinkling of whining about courts.
@FStratford: Well, we know that whispers in political circles, especially ones that seem to support your presumptions but would be impossible to prove or deny, are all that matters. Do you happen to have, in your hands, a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of NOM, while we’re at it?
JackJackJack
Queerty, there are FOUR Koch brothers, not two. Only Charles and David are involved with Koch Industries and the family’s right-wing foundations. Brother number 3, Bill, is also conservative but seems to spend a lot of time on sailboats and fighting with his ex-wives. Brother number 4, Frederick, is gay and spends most of his time collecting rare books, photographs (including archives of the gay photographer George Platt Lynes), and restoring historic homes.
ScaryRussianHeather
@jwrappaport:
“Also, Queerty: stop capitalizing the word god. This isn’t 1950. I’d level some postmodern accusation like Christeonormativity, but I don’t think they’ve invented it yet.”
Oh I see you capitalized Christeonormativity.
Furthermore, in English the word God is a proper noun, thus capitalized.
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-proper.htm
But I get your point. Refusing to capitalize a noun displays disdain. And poor English. And in YOUR case, inconsistency and not thinking things through or proofreading since you capitalized Christeonormativity by mistake LMAO.
BJ McFrisky
I can’t help but laugh at all the gaybies on this site who scream and demand acceptance . . . and yet when you show it to them they’re suddenly suspicious that there are ulterior motives and clandestine priorities at work. So which is it, guys? Do you want (and will accept) acceptance by others? Or, as per the status quo, will you just get catty and bitchy and accuse Mr. Koch of wanting us dead? Per the previous comments, I’d say it’s the latter. Nice to see we’ve made such progress.
brent
@erics: I was talking about how blacks and latinos vote against gay marriage at the polls. % wise they vote against marriage in higher numbers than whites. If we define someone who is opposed to gay marriage as a bigot then blacks and latinos would be bigoted.
n900mixalot
@brent: And gay men are child molesters, right? Because the negative decisions and actions of one segment of a certain group is always true about the WHOLE ENTIRE group. Right?!
Are you for real, “Brent”?! We are talking about specific groups here! You can’t lump every Black and “Latino” voter into one group and extrapolate a massive assumption like the one you are making, to the ENTIRE GROUP. That is statistics and research 101, you can’t graduate from high school without knowing that … well, you couldn’t in the 90s, who knows where we are at these days with education here.
Oh, and “Latinos” refers to people who LIVE in Latin-America, and unless they are citizens of the U.S., they aren’t voting here. I’m down with calling the US part of Latin-America because of the strong influence, but since you refer to “blacks and Latinos” as “they”, I am very comfortable assuming you are neither, and THEN assuming you are a bigot yourself based on your ridiculously under-developed comments.
brent
@n900mixalot: Ok then of course the actions of a certain part of a group doesn’t represent the whole group. You of course would extend this logic to the republican party.