Everyone is creaming over this just-released bipartisan study commissioned by Freedom to Marry showing that support for marriage equality has “accelerated dramatically” over the last two years— especially among independent voters—making the issue “increasingly safe political ground” that will “dominate” the political landscape in future years. But before you start expecting more GOPs to follow this national trend, you should take a look at another study.
According to a recent National Journal Political Insiders poll, “Democratic political operatives overwhelmingly say the time has come for gay marriage, while a majority of Republicans now believe they should just avoid this issue.” That’s right, not support the issue, but avoid it. The same way they avoided George “Albatross” Bush during the 2008 elections.
You can’t spend the last few decades actively demonizing and campaigning against the gay community and then just turn around and say, “Remember us? We’re your friends! Oh, all that ‘activist judge,’ ‘traditional marriage’ talk? We take it all back!”
We remember the last 30 years and anti-gay positions continue to define the Republican party as most of their current presidential candidates support a constitutional ban against same-sex marriage.
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.
I don’t wanna piss on the New York victory or the GOP senators who voted for statewide marriage equality, but those senators had a lot of financial backing by donors who promised to help cover their re-election costs if they took a stand and do the right thing.
Any Republican who decided to start vocally supporting gay marriage would get eaten alive by their own party for bring up an issue they’d rather avoid. This same Republican would also run the risk of making their fellow GOP legislators look like bigoted dinosaurs when the other elephants would rather the electorate just forget about their past records.
In short, Republicans will start supporting marriage equality when someone promises to financially shield them from getting eaten by their own once they do.
Steve
The article that presented the graph makes a good point: current Republican politicians will always be unpopular for their anti-gay beliefs because the demography of our country is changing so rapidly. Only fools fight demography.
Jim
I think this debate really is a generational thing. It’ll be a foregone conclusion a decade from now. Keep up the good work, I guess.
inoits2
I would be willing to bet that Republican politicians as a whole support our rights, however, as with Democrats, they represent their constituents. We can expect to see them change as their supporters do. They want to avoid the issue because it’s becoming backward to be against it. Makes sense that the Republican senators needed the donors to promise them support.
GayGOP
@inoits2: I have to agree with your analysis. Things will change. But I note that the GOP has a massive shift from opposition to believing that the issue should be ignored. That, to me, is a sign of changing times.
Andrew
Attempting to shove the issue into oblivion isn’t necessarily a sign of progress. Make no mistake: if the Republicans still have people like Michele Bachmann and Rick Anal-froth openly campaigning against gay people, it will be a long time before they generally accept gays in the most rudimentary fashion – much longer before gay marriage is on the table. The 6% increase in Repubs supporting gay marriage is encouraging (if that margin is significant for this sample size), however.
Guillermo3
The sad & outrageous fact is that Republicans,under George W. brought us closer to fascism than we’ve ever been.The equally sad,perhaps much sadder fact is that their dupes,very often in impoverished,rather hopeless places support not the fascistic aspects,but decry “Obama Care”,as they call it (when most of them couldn’t get employer provided or private health care if their lives depended on it,and support the religious right and “Family Values”[what Matt Groening wittily called Manson Family Values,years ago].Sad to see that instead of remaining the party of Lincoln,the birthplace of the modern Republican Party was Linz,Austria.
At least in spite of greed and assholery,through courage & honest struggle some progress is being made.
Cam
Remember, groups like HRC for YEARS have been telling us to stay quiet, to shut up, to not upset anybody, to sit back etc….
They attacked groups that were more in your face claiming that those actions would make people mad and hate us…
So what has happened after two years of more in your face behavior? The numbers of people supporting gay rights, has gon up incredibly fast. People need to know we’re here.
Riker
Notice that support within the GOP grew from 8% to 14%. GOProud and those of us who are gay republicans are probably responsible for the lion’s share of that, and we’re working on increasing that figure even further over the next 1, 4, 10, 20 years until we look upon the anti-gay politicians as we now do George Wallace.
Remember that next time you try putting us down and calling us Jewish NAZIs and all that. You can’t do it alone, you need us.
inoits2
@Riker: Perhaps you are right. Maybe the fact that conservative and gay Republicans are in the media has helped break down the stereotypes. Maybe the straight republicans can relate since they are seeing gays that are like them but just happen to be gay. I must say I have new respect for Log Cabin after what they did for DADT. They certainly did more than HRC.
robert in NYC
As long as their are tea party scumbags, 87 of them in the House of Representatives, the ones calling the shots, no way is the GOP going to support marriage equality. The majority of them didn’t even support repeal of DADT and certainly not DOMA if and when it is ever repealed. Without the majority of democrats, the GOP, Log Cabin and GOProud wouldn’t be able to do a thing for equality, NOTHING.
bill(guillermo3)
@Riker: Who has called you “Jewish Nazis” in these pages?No
one that I can see[please correct me,if I am wrong].I did write that under,the loathsome George W.,we Americans came closer to fascism than ever in our history.I was referring to the practices of extrordinary rendition and torture sanctioned in the name of security.As an American descendant of a signer of the Declration of Independence,who happens to be gay,I say:NOT IN MY NAME.We do not need that Republican contribution.
Andrew
I’m not sure that GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans are directly responsible for the increase in republicans supporting gay marriage. Gay people are everywhere, as are republicans, and one sect of gay people can’t claim a majority of influence over changing republican ideals. If anything, I’d say gay people (regardless of political ideology) within the families of republicans are the most influential. The argument liberal/democratic gay people have against GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans is that, while claiming to support gay issues, these two groups endorse and defend anti-gay politicians. I think that the difference between the democratic and republican gay people is that they see gay issues in varying degrees of importance: for gay republicans that support anti-gay candidates, conservative fiscal issues trump gay rights; for democrats (and let’s face it, more democrats promote gay rights than republicans), gay issues are paramount (or the person was a democrat anyway regarding fiscal issues).
Erik
The Republican we most need the support of is Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. If we get him, we likely won’t need any others.
bill(guillermo3)
@Andrew: True,Andrew___AND the Democrats have an edge,prepondrence of them being fully evove human beings.
Riker
@bill(guillermo3): Not necessarily on this thread, but on others related to Republicans. The other one I see often is that i’m like a black KKK member.
Guillermo3
@Riker: Thanks for responding,Riker.I hate hate speech & name calling [except,of course, when I do it].It IS difficult for me personally to understand how any aware human being could be a Republican,given most of that party’s history,but as the saying goes :”It’s a [more or less] free country.”