The Log Cabin Republicans are gearing up for their annual convention in San Diego this weekend, when luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the gay GOPpers. One of the group’s members, Kevin Norte, offered this reflection, which we think is fairly valid: “The gay and lesbian community is more accepting of, lately, the leather community than it is the Republican community. West Hollywood will put Mr. Leather as their grand marshal of the parade, but would they ever put a Republican? The answer is Never! And that’s a boundary that has to be broken down someday.” There’s certainly quite a talent pool to choice from – we think Mark Foley would make a great grand marshall. Just make sure there are no teenagers around. [KPBS]
Good Point.
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
CitizenGeek
That is a fair point. Even if you take away the Republican aspect; the gay community really is far too accepting of the “leather community”. It’s a sexual fetish, it shouldn’t be given floats on pride parades …
miKEM
I dunno…if the republicans look good in chaps, then maybe?
walt zipprian
Maybe if the republicans didn’t refer to gays as things like “cancer”, maybe if republicans didn’t want us treated like second class citizens, maybe if the republican party wasn’t a bunch of homo hating fascists.
Maybe then they could get a float in a gay parade.
Personally, I think they’d rather keep on hating us than get a freaking float in a freaking parade.
Sir Winston Thriller
That’s because at least when the leatherfolk fuck you, you’ve given informed consent.
Bob R
Since the Reagan administration, I have come to regard the only good Republican as a dead Republican. I am not fond of the so called “leather community”, it’s not really my thing, but I find them a whole hell of a lot less dangerous and despicable than I do most Republicans, gay or otherwise. I wouldn’t want to put a Republican on a gay pride float, but I’d have no objection to placing their heads on a pike.
Craig
Comparing the leather community and the “Republican community” is absurd. Republicans are not a community, they are a political party – one which has worked steadfastly to execute their official policy to fight equality for gays. The leather community, on the other hand, works tirelessly to promote gay rights, AIDS awareness, and other pro-gay causes.
Is it any wonder why Mr. Leather would be invited to be grand marshall of a parade, while Sally Kern would not?
I appreciate the efforts of the Log Cabin Republicans to try to change the Republican party from the inside, but they really need to STOP WHINING when the rest of us fight back against the GOP. When their party stops fighting our community, they will be welcome on our parade floats.
hisurfer
Since when was West Hollywood Pride representative of the gay community? And when has the Log Cabin EVER been denied a float or booth at pride, anywhere?
Jack Jett
Our country is going to hell in a hand basket and the Log Cabinettes are concerned about placement in the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade.
Can someone let them know the year is 2008 and not 1988?
On the flip side, many of those guys are really studly.
foofyjim
I still can’t figure out why anyone would want to join an organization whose stated purpose is to exclude them. The Log Cabiners raise money every election cycle for the Republican presidential nominee who always sends it back. Why do they complain the gay community doesn’t accept the when the Republican Party doesn’t accept them?
As far as the Leather community goes, I can put on a pair of assless chaps, a leather thong, and a leather vest and I’ll be welcome at each and every leather event.
abracadaver
If you’re not a Democrat when you’re under 30, then you have no heart. If you’re not a Republican after 30, then you have no brain.
CitizenGeek
I think being gay and a Republican is very much an oxymoron. But, I think it’s important that they exist; if no one’s putting pressure on the Republicans, they’re not going to change?
Also, I really can’t stress how outrageous it it that the “leather community” is given such a high status in gay celebrations like pride parades. It’s a sexual fetish, first of all, and secondly, it’s really not good for the gay image at all …
Donald
As soon as the Republican party quits pandering to the Christian extremist and realigns itself back to conservative values pre-1980 which include fiscal conservatism, “…the best government is that which governs least”, and traditional family values (no pedophiles, no adulterers*, no lewd acts) then we can talk.
*remember kids…divorce = adultery according to the good book
Donald
CitizenGeek – I have to disagree with you about leathermen and the gay image. I would much rather see them on the news than the methed out/coked out/*insert current circuit drug here* twinkie boys in skimpy wet underwear. THIS is a much bigger image issue for the gay community (and the primary reason I stopped going to pride parades) than someone wearing leather.
hisurfer
ahem, Jack … you might want to go check out the Log Cabin website. “Studly” is the last word that comes to mind.
The bulk of the site is actually focused on standard issues (marriage, workplace equality, gays in the military) and isn’t too bad.
The guys with photos on the front page, alas, look like those creepy kids from a college Ayn Rand society. Oh, and John Bolton. His photo is the first one.
Please don’t tell me you find him studly.
Jack Jett
hisurfer.
i just remember meeting some of them when i was working at q television. i remember them being cute in that I NEED A SPANKING DADDY sort of way.
i checked out the site and you are right. maybe i was just drunk and horney when i met them.
PuddyKatz
Arnold has said he will oppose an anit-gay marriage amendment to the CA constitution. And, as an aside, SONDA, the anti-discrimination law for gays in NYS could only have been passed with Republican support in the State Senate. It was sponsored by a Republican State Senator and Log Cabin shares some credit for that.
If you expect to win with only Democratic support you are deluding yourselves.
Leland Frances
Hmmm. I think the case can be made that gay Republicans are simply sadomasochists without being encased in dead cow; though some, of course, are often both.
Towleroad today quotes Chief Log Head Patrick Sammon as saying they are likely to endorse McShame because, “We know he’s someone who’s an inclusive Republican who understands the party needs to get back to its core principles and we are excited about the campaign ahead.”
Will someone please remind Reich Commandant Sammon that McCain supported his state’s constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. “I wholeheartedly support the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment and I hope that the voters in Arizona choose to support it as well.” “At the meeting Sen. McCain presented a petition to PMA chair Lynn Stanley with his signature and the signatures of others. Sen. McCain then signed the back of the petition as a petition circulator.”
And that he had to have “LGBT” defined for him? That he admitted to having no idea if condoms helped prevent HIV transmission.
The Republican Party’s Core Principles:
Greed
Profit Justifies Anything & Everything
Warmongering As Phallic Worship.
Favorite Beatle Song: “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
Homo/Transphobia
Male Supremacy
White Supremacy
Patriarchy
More Greed
Demagoguery
Hypocrisy
The Environment Is But Kindling Wood For My Comfortable Lifestyle.
If Everyone Built Just One Little Oil Well What A Wonderful World This Would Be.
Fake Piety & Ceaseless Sanctimoniousness
WE Are God’s Chosen People
Invasion Of Everyone Else’s Privacy
Civil Liberties Were Only Meant For Us
A Day Without Privilege Is Like A Day Without Sunshine.
Constitution? What Constitution?
Did I Mention Greed?
Craig
To CitizenGeek and Donald:
There is no standard image for the gay community – we are as diverse as the straight world. No matter what image you would like to see put forth, there are a couple of things that you cannot deny:
1. The leather community, which is more than just a fetish to those who are a part of it, is very active in supporting gay people politically, health-wise, and communally. It may not be your thing, and you might be embarrassed by men in assless chaps, but you have to give them credit where it due.
2. No matter what image gays project, the AFA and similar cretinous organizations will twist it and lie about it to work against us. We might as well be ourselves.
PuddyKatz
Reich Commandant? I think as soon as the Nazi analogy comes out you have already lost the argument.
Is that the best you can do, Leland?
Mark
The Republican Party — like the Democratic Party — does not have a sharply defined, detailed political philosophy. It has very broad, even vague, principles. Does every Democrat agree with everything every other Democrat says, or every element of the current platform? No; there is a wide range of opinion under the broad umbrella of the party. The same goes for Republicans.
So, take a gay man who believes in individual rights, free enterprise, reduced government intrusion into all areas of our lives, and a strong defense policy. He also thinks he should have the right to marry his partner. Now, is it really so strange that he would choose to join the Republicans and fight for all those things? Especially since neither of the current Democratic presidential candidates is for gay marriage either? I don’t think so.
Craig
Mark wrote:
“So, take a gay man who believes in individual rights, free enterprise, reduced government intrusion into all areas of our lives, and a strong defense policy. He also thinks he should have the right to marry his partner. Now, is it really so strange that he would choose to join the Republicans and fight for all those things? Especially since neither of the current Democratic presidential candidates is for gay marriage either? I don’t think so.”
I don’t think so either, Mark. That’s why the Log Cabin Republicans exist. However, if we move the debate to the more basic issues of Employment Non-Discrimination and Hate Crimes Legislation, there is a bright line seperating the Democrats and the Republicans. Officially, the GOP supports none of our issues, while the Democrats support most of them, even if they split hairs on Marriage Equality by supporting Civil Unions instead.
And on the issue of “reduced government intrusion into all areas of our lives”, the current Republican administration is hardly in good stead. Bush and Cheney have done more to destroy individual liberty and the right to privacy than any other administration, including that of Nixon. And don’t get me started on the issue of smaller government – we see what has happened to our budget deficit.
If the Republican party were to go back to their libertarian roots and actually support individual liberty, smaller government and states rights, and stop fighting the rights of gays or anyone else with an interest in privacy, I could actually vote for them. For now, I can only wish the Log Cabin types luck with their efforts to change, but also remind them that if they aren’t careful they may be inadvertently supporting the party or candidate that stands in the way of our freedoms.
Mark
“if we move the debate to the more basic issues of Employment Non-Discrimination and Hate Crimes Legislation, there is a bright line seperating the Democrats and the Republicans. Officially, the GOP supports none of our issues”
The fact that you write that these are “our issues,” as if being gay means being automatically supportive of them is the exact problem being debated here.
Those issues aren’t more basic than individual rights. I oppose both of them because they violate individual rights. Employers ought to have the right to hire whomever they want — and personally, I don’t want to work for someone who is hiring me only because it’s against the law not to. “Hate crimes” laws are are bad because they punish thoughts instead of actions. I don’t care if the person who mugs me did it because I’m gay or because he ate too many Twinkies.
hisurfer
Jack, I know that cowboy! And yeah, he is hot! But I think there’s only one of them. Rest of ’em ain’t so hot.
We need these guys to work for change from within the GOP. My issue is that they would still actually ask the rest of us to vote for a Bush or a McCain. Forget the party platforms, forget what you might think of Obama or Hillary, and look at the Supreme Court. We, collectively, as Americans who believe in liberty and justice and equality, are fucked if the right-wing gets to place another ideologue on the bench.
chandler in lasvegas
Democratic gays are focused on the issues and what legislators have accomplished. Log Cabin consistently bashes “liberal” gay organizations.
They need to stop this shit ans start holding their own party accountable.
And, abracadaver, that old chestnut about being Republican or having no brain after 30, have you been told that the party of Lincoln, the party of all those reconstructionist blacks has CHANGED A LITTLE?
spg
Point of information.
Capital Pride in Washington, DC does not have Grand Marshalls. We have Pride Heros and several are honored every year for outstanding community service and they ride in open air cars during the Pride Parade. They must be nominated by members of the community.
Two or three years ago, Log Cabin member Jerome Sikorski was chosen as a pride hero. I will hazard a guess that he is only the most recent logger to be chosen as Pride Hero and ride in the parade.
Its a fact.
Steve
When the Republican party stops encouraging hate crimes against gay people, stops attacking gay people with hateful rhetoric and legislation, stops using “gay” as a button to push “Christian” voters, and stops pretending to be “moral”, then gay people may be able to stop actively opposing that party.
When the Republican party starts supporting equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal treatment under the law, and when they start prosecuting the hate crimes against the most hated minorities, then maybe we can start supporting that party.
I am sure there are some people who put finances, taxes, or some other issue ahead of their own basic human rights. Those people are, at best, foolish. When you can be arrested, assaulted, imprisoned, or even killed because of who you are, it is profoundly foolish to be more concerned about the money than about the life.
But even if finance really is more important, the Republicans have demonstrated a clear record of gross irresponsibility. Laizzes faire economic policy was the cause of periodic economic disasters, every decade or two for at least 500 years before the Great Depression. And, in recent decades, the Republicans have demonstrated a willingness to print money and spend deficit at a prodigious rate. If you want actual conservative economic policy, the Democrats are the party you actually should support.
conrad
fuck the log cabin republicans. its the republican administration that has rammed abstinence only sex education down our throats (and the federal funding for sex education) which the state i live in rejected because it doesnt work. because of this i will no longer have a job working to help homeless queer kids not drug and kill themselves come june 1st. so not only will i be broke as shit, queer kids will be at higher risk in my community.
the log cabin republicans are a bunch of fucking fools. when i see their table at this years pride fest im going to flip it over and spit in their face.
if i ever met andrew sullivan i’d spit in that privileged bitch’s face.
M Shane
In aligning itself with the reigious gay hating extremists, in a cleaver move to gain votes gained a new demension of intolerence and extremity. These are largely poor disenfanchized people who felt a newfound sense of importance in being wanted by the greedy Corporate creeps.
They would with respect to material needs belong in the ranks democrats all the way.
This is exactly how Hitler won adherants from the poor classes: pushing a brand of blind pride in some ideal that excluded a hated “other” group.
The cabinettes are a covy of lost souls , inherited or wanabe wealthy fags.
The truth is that as long as they need an electorate, until the inevitable arrival of a dictatorship, the republicans just won’t have enough people in the ranks of the wealthy to support them.The Bush legacy is a permanent part of Republican agenda.
Who would want someone disgusting like that in thier parade except for a tomato toss.
M Shane
Oh my god, I forgot about those poor guys who’s S&M routines run over into their lives.
It’s just possible that the cabinettes are into Nazi torture games and forgot where they were. Well that’s just sad. Maybe now with Iraq they can switch it over to U.S. Security /Raghead S&M. Wow, Tell me if anyone gets into waterboarding for kicks!
erik11
Yup, now that the REPUBLICANS are in trouble, and have a snowball’s chance in hell at gaining the white house next election (unless they rig the elections…again) they now seek Gay membership… as long as we still don’t wanna attend their convention, or talk about the need for equal rights in society.
Please.
M Shane
Erik 11:
I have reason to believe that it may be too late for that to even be make a difference. We tend to believe that the Bush terror was only a freekish speed bump in the progression America’s politics rather than just a natural progression of this countrys rapid deterioration. Bear with me: 1) How has Bush & Co. get away clean with multiple overt insults to our Constitution: There are numerous reasons for impeachment, and yet indifference has prevailed.
Just a few examples: (supported by some democrates ) that Treaties will be the law of the land: All of the decisions against the Geneva convention preventing torture. Torture is now by law legal. The President has had a standing army (his own) for years: the CIA is his private army. The fact that we keep an ongoing armed force employed always; and a mercinary force as well is unconsytitutional. Here is th Supreme Courts reading of the law
“It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” —- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson
We have reached the point at which all empires fall and become Dictatorships: we have more energuy going to making colonies than we do taking care of the needs of citizens fully %40 of the military buget is unrevealed to anyone. We spend 1trillon dollars on military (colonialism) . Eisenhower warned us of what he saw happening. Lets hope that someone can see.
No matter who takes over, things have been pushed so far that the chance of the U.S, surviving at all are minimal, unless America can pull out of being a world power as did England(whose shoes we just steped into.)
It doesn’t look good.
erik11
You forgot mentioning the revocation of Habias Corpus, Black Water, and no one acknowledges that the Bush election was a coup d’état by the radical right. After all, who is gonna challenge them?
Yes, they have mastered media, and have programmed the masses to their channel in life, as well as dumbed down the general populous.
Is it a coincidence the Bushe’s Grandfather was involved in causing the Great Depression, or that Bush Senior was head of the CIA…
America IS in trouble, but I still believe there are enough people in the right places to save us from this. I cannot believe that the military complex will allow a dictatorship to emerge. Bush has been foiled a number of times in the past 2 terms from ‘causing mushroom clouds. He knows that psychological studies have said he only needs 1 more domestic attack to become a dictator… and he continues to try and facilitate it.
Any one who reads this and guffaws…please check out ZEITGIEST – you will learn more than you imagine.
erik11
OH and M SHANE: Waterboarding is fun if you mix it with tickling.
FYI.
Justin S
That guy in his Trunks has an interesting post on the http://www.blogcabinca.org site about gay marriage. If his strict constructionsit theory validates gay marriage, then, maybe we should lay off them- – just a bit.
Justin S
Me again. I did some digging and according to the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-j-davis/the-great-california-gay_b_96802.html
I would not dismiss that guy in the Trunks (which I bet were RED – LOL )