Oh look who’s coming to the Log Cabin Republican’s fancy PAC fundraising event. GOProud might have Ann Coulter for Homocon, but LCR has … Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions? What are the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee doing with a bunch of homos?
The LCR national dinner on Sept. 22, MC’d by Tucker Carlson, brings together some bizarre bed buddies. For a group so concerned with gay rights, LCR is enlisting the brand names of two bigots to raise cash. Both Cornyn (pictured) and Sessions have an impressive zero percent score from HRC.
When we heard the news about Cornyn joining LCR’s event, we noted it was nothing more than a political stunt to court some queer votes. But as gay scribe Marc Ambinder notes, “The presence of the top two party political strategists at a gay Republican event means that both men do not believe the criticism they’ll get from consorting with gay rights advocates will in any way complicate either their immediate goals as party committee chiefs or the future of their political careers.” Read: They’re not scared of being associated with gays.
So that’s … progress?
Apparently so: Between this, Ken Mehlman, and former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt coming out for GOP support of gay marriage, it has Democrats wondering — aloud — whether Team Obama should be worried.
Cam
Maybe they’ve decided that they should probably stop wearing Klan hoods if they want to get anybody younger to consider joining the party.
Then again, GOProud, if they are anything like HRC will probably just say to them “Hey, if you come to our event, we will never ever complain about anything anti-gay that you do.”
concernedcitizen
Showing up at an event hardly constitutes as proof positive that the GOP is even remotely considering changing their tone and legacy about gay and lesbian citizens. This is still the same party that ferociously fights against hate crime legislation, gay marriage, gays as protected under workforce discrimination ect. ect.
Hypocritical window-dressing is all I see…
concernedcitizen
Ohh and it’s kind of pathetic that Queerty is the biggest GOP apologists I’ve ever seen. Get real, the GOP has been on the wrong side of history for at least 40+ years in terms of civil rights. How do you even sit and type these posts with no spine in your backs.
Fitz
The republicans don’t want me. The dem’s don’t want to be seen eating lunch with me. I am old enough to just accept that no one has my back except me. It’s not a bad thing, I’m not even bitter anymore. I just get it, and I am done with voting for lesser evils or people who I think don’t mean to be a$$holes.
greenmanTN
It’s disturbing to suddenly see this new “the GOP is changing their tune on gays!” meme being repeated throughout the blogosphere. Based on what? Ken Mehlman coming out? Republican lawyer Ted Olson’s participation in the (so far) successful court case against Prop 8?
While it’s true that, according to its own alleged small-government beliefs, the GOP *should* be supporting gay rights that doesn’t mean they do or that position will change anytime soon. The media arm of the Republican party may have declared a temporary moratorium on gay-baiting but all you have to do is read various state Republican Party platform statements to see that rabid homophobia is alive and well in the GOP. Some of the teabaggers and Religious Right may be an embarrassment to the GOP establishment but if you think they’re going to suddenly discard them or stop appeasing that part of their base with anti-gay legislation you’ve got another think coming.
Maybe all this wishful thinking is a concerted effort to scare the Democratic Party into doing more than tossing a few crumbs our way and, if that’s the plan, I hope it works. But this tactic could also backfire by softening the image of the GOP in the public mind (including the gay public) even when it’s NOT reflected in their official positions.
Latebrosus
Unless we all suddenly become white and monied, I don’t think there’s much to worry about.
David Ehrenstein
Is Tucker Carlson finally coming out?
Bareback Hussein Osama
Please do not leave me! I am your fiercest advocate!
adam
The only one of those to support any measure of gay rights are Cao and Ros-Lehtinen. You’d have to be an enormous moron to expect even meager support.
…Which would make sense if you were a gay Republican.
Cindy
While I think the big news of the GOP being suddenly gay friendly is a joke at best, this ultimately can only help us. The percentages for gay rights have been moving in our favor and having a few more Republicans switch to our side can be enough to tip the scales toward us.
We don’t need everyone and providing a safe ground for those on the edge is good news. Having more Republicans come on over helps provide that.
That can leave the outliers of the Dobsons and Peter Laberas of the world to spin around, lonely and angry, in their own muck. We’ll never get people like that and don’t really have to care about it, particularly as their voices get more and more marginalized by having more people with us.
Timothy
If the party leadership want to help Log Cabin raise money so that LCR can turn around and lobby them on gay issues, I say take the money, make the connections, get what you can.
And we have said for years that the better folks know us the more supportive they come to be. I’ll happily take ANY improvement we can get from these guys.
Kieran
Do we REALLY want Republicans and Democrats competing for gay votes and money? NAAAHHH. That would actually be smart policy. Better off letting Democrats know we’ve got no where else to go, and accepting the occassional stale crumb they “courageously” toss our way.
james_from_the_great_city_of_cambridge
You guys who think this is progress for the GOP are complete morons. What they want is to take your money then use it against you to bring their evangelical shit-head base to the polls. You guys are such fools it’s laughable…
Bill Perdue
Republicans are almost as bad about GLBT rights as the Democrats. Almost. The idea that Republicans are gay friendly is as laughable as the idea that Obama is our fierce defender. Democrats are going to get clobbered in November because they deserve to lose.
Neither party deserves our support.
On November 2nd 2010 vote socialist or leftist or sit it out. The Democrats deserve to lose. *
On November 4th 2012 vote socialist or leftist or sit it out.*
A Republican politician is a rancid right centrist with a theocrat attached at the hip. A Democrat politician is a Republican in drag.
*Unless there are important initiatives or propositions on the ballot.
Bareback Hussein Osama
@Kieran: But you have nowhere else to go! I am the one-stop-shop for Hope and Change!
truthteller
These idiots are being played like a cheap harmonica. Just blow hot air and they sing you a pretty song! Yes sireee!
tjr101
This is all part of their electoral strategy. Get as much votes as possible from all quarters in order to regain congress and ultimately the White House. Then when they regain power, it’s back to pushing hateful constitutional amendments.
Bill Perdue
The GOP is not going to become our fierce defenders any more than the Dems are. Boycott both parties.
[img]http://www.gayliberation.net/photos/2010/0627gaypride/GLN2010Pride15_LGBTQsDeclaringIndependence.jpg[/img]
“No More LGBT Support for the Democratic Party
After four long years of Democratic rule of both congressional houses and going on two years Democratic control of the White House, LGBT people are angered by the lack of action to end the U.S. government’s discrimination against our community.
It is no longer mainly “the big bad Republicans,” but a government dominated by the Democratic Party which is:
* Denying us equal employment protections
* Exiling bi-national couples who can’t get rights to stay here
* Using bigoted standards to discharge us from the military
* Arguing in court to uphold the “Defense of Marriage Act”
* Continuing Bush’s “faith-based” funding of sectarian projects with federal dollars
* Cutting international anti-AIDS funding
* Freezing domestic spending while spreading America’s wars and taking military spending to record levels
Our movement’s dependence upon and subservience to the Democratic Party has proven to be a dead end. We urgently need to win a wave of pro-LGBT rights legislation, but nearly two years of Democratic rule of two branches of the federal government show that only a truly independent movement can win the sweeping changes we need and demand.
In response to the failure of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress to fulfill their many promises, we must inflict pain. That means demonstrations against the main party in power, the Democrats. That means boycotting them and the Republicans in the fall elections.
To those who say that this will only throw the fall elections to the far right, we say that civil rights progress is in no way dependent upon which major party is in power.
Some of the most powerful civil rights progress for women, African Americans and others happened under the far-right Nixon administration, for example. And ironically, it’s been Republican-appointed judges from Massachusetts to California who’ve proven much more likely to support equal marriage rights than Democrats. As ACT-UP in the early 1990s proved against the first President Bush, street activism which genuflects to neither major party is the key means to winning civil rights and saving lives.
The Gay Liberation Network is planning a Chicago action in the second half of September aimed at the politicians that verbally cater to us most, but don’t actually deliver anything.
We’ve heard enough empty promises from “pro-gay” politicians. If we are going to win our rights, it will be despite the opposition of those who forthrightly oppose us, and despite the foot-dragging and covert opposition of those who claim to support us. Our goal is to convince others in the LGBT community to realize that we have more options – the existing political choices do not meet our needs. We will have to win our rights ourselves, in the streets and outside the voting booth.
We invite others to join us in developing coordinated protests in other cities. ”
If you would like to plan an action in your city, please contact Gay Liberation Network at [email protected] or call Andy Thayer at 773-209-1187 or Brent Holman-Gomez at 312-543-7552.
Gay Liberation Network
http://www.GayLiberation.net
jason
And what, pray tell, have the Democrats done for us gays since taking over Congress in 2008? Almost nothing, that’s what. The Democrats have been dreadful to the gay community, absolutely dreadful.
Obama’s legacy will be a litany of lies designed to win votes. We should’ve seen through his phony “hope” notion. He wanted us to hope alright – like keep hoping for something that would never materialize.
Mr Obama, you’ve left us hanging on the hope clothes-line for far too long. Now it’s our turn to show you and your party that we mean business. I urge every gay man and woman to vote against the Democrats this November.
Mike
The Republicans remain bigotted scum who I will not vote for.
But I won’t be voting Democrat either.
They have failed me.
Keith
Obama and the dems better be worried as far as the LGBT vote goes. They have done squat for gay rights after strongly campaigning in favor of them. The repugs see an opportunity to take some votes away from Obama, and it just may be enough to send him packing. He should have been bold when he took office instead of the pragmatic shit he’s been hawking. People want leadership and decisive/bold action, not someone who takes three weeks to decide what he should eat for breakfast.
Jen
The Republicans obfuscation on homosexuality is as much a cynical ploy as is Sarah Palin describing herself as a feminist. It’s pure nonsense, and it will not play among any true thinkers.
While I am not thrilled on Obama’s foot-dragging, my own Dems have been very good – I continue to appreciate their support.
Mac McNeill
As long as there are people like Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle in the republican party, gays will only be welcomed for the money. They will burn in hell before they accept gay rights.
I swore I wasn’t going to vote in this election for either the deomocrats or republicans, but they put Angle on the Republican ticket against Reid, so there is no way I can accept her.
To bad the gays don’t have the balls to start their own party and go from there. I’m sure there would be a lot of people ready to join, but both of the major parties are not interested in us accept for our donation.
Markie-Mark
@Mac McNeill: Mac, My husband is running for Massachusetts State Representative on the Green Party. The Green Party has had marriage equality in their platform since 1990. A lot of LGBT will not vote Green because they don’t think Greens can win. That’s probably true for now. But if Greens get enough votes they can change the dialogue. It doesn’t matter much to the Dems/Repugs if you stay home. But they sure hate seeing a competitor taking their votes away. I wouldn’t trust a Repug or a Democrap until AFTER they deliver.
james_from_the_great_city_of_cambridge
@jason: Says Bill Perdue’s bitter alter-ego, embittered by Hilary’s defeat to Obama who has now turned to the American Nazi Party a.k.a. the GOP.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/bill-perdue.asp?cycle=08
Markie-Mark
@jason: I agree with you, Jason. Except that I won’t vote for repugs. I’m voting Green. But there is no question that Obama has been so awful on lgbt right and that is exactly what has emboldened the Repugs to try this cheap trick. They don’t fool me. But the Democraps don’t fool me any more, either.
Chris
Why don’t you american gays just create/support a new party?
like we did with the greens in australia, or the lib dems in britain? Surely thats easier than just lumping yourself in with one of two choices.
Steve
The D’s have been making specific promises to us for nearly 40 years. They have been breaking those promises, too, for just as long. I don’t believe their promises any more.
The R’s were pandering to the right-wing social “conservatives” for most of those 40 years. The R’s still are not making promises to us. When the R leaders do start making specific promises to us, I won’t believe them, either.
I don’t believe promises any more. I believe what they write in actual bills. I believe how they actually vote on bills. Empty talk doesn’t matter.
So far, I have not seen even one Republican Senator co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act.
Steve
@Chris: “Why don’t you american gays just create/support a new party?”
The laws in the US do not actually allow other parties to be created. The Democrats and Republicans have written the laws, over a period of more than a hundred years, to make it almost impossible for a candidate from any other party to be on the ballot. For a Democrat or Republican to run for office, one signature by a party boss gets their name on the ballot. For a third-party candidate to be on the ballot, they have to gather signatures from a huge number of registered voters. It is big news when any third-party candidate qualifies to be on the ballot. It happens, but only rarely, and only by extremely will-financed candidates.
And, of course, the Democrats and Republicans are not going to change those laws any time soon.
Syl
@tjr101: Oh come on. They couldn’t get a constitution amendment passed to give everyone puppy nowadays, let alone get the country to side with something that crazy. The anti-gays are a dying breed, and opinions are trending in our favor. The Right is realizing that they don’t have a future if all they can do is appeal to Evangelicals and bitter, hypocritical, aging baby boomers.
Bill Perdue
[img]http://www.gayliberation.net/photos/2010/0627gaypride/GLN2010Pride15_LGBTQsDeclaringIndependence.jpg[/img]
“No More LGBT Support for the Democratic Party
After four long years of Democratic rule of both congressional houses and going on two years Democratic control of the White House, LGBT people are angered by the lack of action to end the U.S. government’s discrimination against our community.
It is no longer mainly “the big bad Republicans,” but a government dominated by the Democratic Party which is:
* Denying us equal employment protections
* Exiling bi-national couples who can’t get rights to stay here
* Using bigoted standards to discharge us from the military
* Arguing in court to uphold the “Defense of Marriage Act”
* Continuing Bush’s “faith-based” funding of sectarian projects with federal dollars
* Cutting international anti-AIDS funding
* Freezing domestic spending while spreading America’s wars and taking military spending to record levels
Our movement’s dependence upon and subservience to the Democratic Party has proven to be a dead end. We urgently need to win a wave of pro-LGBT rights legislation, but nearly two years of Democratic rule of two branches of the federal government show that only a truly independent movement can win the sweeping changes we need and demand.
In response to the failure of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress to fulfill their many promises, we must inflict pain. That means demonstrations against the main party in power, the Democrats. That means boycotting them and the Republicans in the fall elections.
To those who say that this will only throw the fall elections to the far right, we say that civil rights progress is in no way dependent upon which major party is in power.
Some of the most powerful civil rights progress for women, African Americans and others happened under the far-right Nixon administration, for example. And ironically, it’s been Republican-appointed judges from Massachusetts to California who’ve proven much more likely to support equal marriage rights than Democrats. As ACT-UP in the early 1990s proved against the first President Bush, street activism which genuflects to neither major party is the key means to winning civil rights and saving lives.
The Gay Liberation Network is planning a Chicago action in the second half of September aimed at the politicians that verbally cater to us most, but don’t actually deliver anything.
We’ve heard enough empty promises from “pro-gay” politicians. If we are going to win our rights, it will be despite the opposition of those who forthrightly oppose us, and despite the foot-dragging and covert opposition of those who claim to support us. Our goal is to convince others in the LGBT community to realize that we have more options – the existing political choices do not meet our needs. We will have to win our rights ourselves, in the streets and outside the voting booth.
We invite others to join us in developing coordinated protests in other cities. ”
If you would like to plan an action in your city, please contact Gay Liberation Network at [email protected] or call Andy Thayer at 773-209-1187 or Brent Holman-Gomez at 312-543-7552.
Gay Liberation Network
http://www.GayLiberation.net
[img]http://www.gayliberation.net/photos/2010/0627gaypride/GLN2010Pride15_LGBTQsDeclaringIndependence.jpg[/img]
Bill Perdue
Besides being an excuse monger for Obama and a liar cambridge jimmy is confused. The rightwing party in power is the Democrat party. After November their cousinbrothers the Republicans will probably take power in Congress because most people think Obama is a failure.
“Simply put, Democrats find themselves heading into a midterm election that looks as grisly as any the party has faced in decades. It isn’t hard to find Democratic pollsters who privately concede that the numbers they are looking at now are worse than what they saw in 1994… Congress does not come back to town for two more weeks, but it is a pretty safe assumption that the mood among Democrats will be surly and the fingers will begin pointing. A party has not lost a House majority in such a short period of time in over a half-century. This is not going to go down well.” Charlie Cook, the National Journal
Bareback Hussein Osama
Please donate to Democrats, Republicans are eeeeevvvvviiiiillll !!!
tjr101
@Bareback Hussein Osama: Well I agree with you on that one, Republicans are evil!
Mark
We’ve never voted Republican. With that said, we no longer financially contribute to Dems or will vote for any Dems as the party has failed to use their majority status and political will to get meaningful GLBT legislation passed while collecting our cash and votes. And in too many cases they have thrown this community under the bus. Enough is enough.
Bareback Hussein Osama
@tjr101: Not evil, but eeeeevvvvviiiiillll!
Russell
Dems have disappointed me, leaving aside gay rights, but never in my life would I vote homophobic republicans and their religious bullshit. I expect little/nothing from politicians, so guys, we´ll have to fight ourselves for our rights and not become second-class citizens. It has always been civil society who achieved social advances, like suffragists and black leaders. I don´t make a bet on any party.
Summerspeaker
This seems like the natural progression of the assimilationist tendency in the gay movement. It’s like that advertisement I saw a year or two ago at Pride:
“What’s better than being a homo? Being a homeowner!”
Here’s to keeping the tradition of queer rebellion alive.
Bill Perdue
Besides being an excuse- monger for Obama and a liar cambridge jimmy is confused. The rightwing party in power is the Democrat party. After November their cousinbrothers the Republicans will probably take power in Congress because most people think Obama is a failure.
“Simply put, Democrats find themselves heading into a midterm election that looks as grisly as any the party has faced in decades. It isn’t hard to find Democratic pollsters who privately concede that the numbers they are looking at now are worse than what they saw in 1994… Congress does not come back to town for two more weeks, but it is a pretty safe assumption that the mood among Democrats will be surly and the fingers will begin pointing. A party has not lost a House majority in such a short period of time in over a half-century. This is not going to go down well.” Charlie Cook, the National Journal
Bill Perdue
The Democrats probably won’t lose as much support to the right as they will to the left and to voting abstinence.
They deserve to be defeated.
Craig
McCain pulled 25% of the gay vote in 2008?
Johnny
Well, to be honest I think alot of you don’t want the Republican party to change because then you won’t have anyone to complain about and I’m sure many of you have spent a long time fighting with Republicans. With that said, I agree with what everyone is saying though. This doesn’t really prove anything. The Republican party as a whole has a long way to go before they’re even remotely considered a gay friendly party and they need to seriously prove themselves if they want the gay community to actually believe them.
Ian
I TRIED to say this a few times over on HuffPo, but their moderators love to censor differing viewpoints and I was scrubbed again & again. If the Dems keep taking gays for granted then naturaly another party can pick them up, even Repubs with their horrendous record on gay rights. At the end of the day we simply want our rights, if the repubs are willing to change (even though it’s simply for votes) then why wouldn’t we vote for them if their actually serious?!?
mykelb
No. They aren’t losing them to the Republicans, they are losing them to the Green Party and the Progressive Party. Why should we throw our lot in with people who promise us things and then don’t do them when we get them into office (Dems), or people whose party platform wants to recriminalize LGBT people and their allies lives and throw us all in jail for simply being who we are (see the Texas State Republican Party Platform here: http://static.texastribune.org/media/documents/FINAL_2010_STATE_REPUBLICAN_PARTY_PLATFORM.pdf
Screw them both.
jason
Ian,
I agree about Huffington Post. They’re censorship-happy over there. It’s also a very homophobic website.
John (CA)
The libertarian “Tea Party” gays were looking for an excuse to vote Republican anyway. That’s the target audience for all this. And there’s little doubt that they are going to turn out in droves in November for the GOP.
Jared Alessandroni
I’m with Russell from above – but seriously, with Obo’s tepid support of moving beyond Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the fact that he couldn’t even openly support the [short-lived] victory in CA – they should be worried. Though, at the end of the day, you’d have to be a real piece of work to support the Repubs no matter how mad you are at the Dems.
Curtis Jensen
I don’t think there is much substance to the idea that the GOP is going to anything to advance our rights, especially as some hove pointed out the State level parties are virulently homophobic. That said, the Democrats have been shamefully neglectful towards our issues, and have taken our support completely for granted without much payback for all the hard work we’ve done sticking with them even when much of America went along with voting for Newt Gingrich and co in the 90’s and then Bush and Co in the 00’s. Their mismanagement of the relationship between LGBT folks and the Democratic party has opened the door for this meme.
Bareback Hussein Osama
@Jared Alessandroni: I am still your fiece advocate! Vote Democrat!
Dfrw
I will never vote for a Republican. I too, am very unhappy with the Democrats, so I may vote Green this fall. The Republicans should not win, but the Democrats deserve to lose.
chelsea swipa
@Cam: klan hoods? Like the dearly departed Robert C Byrd? get real
Bill Perdue
[img]http://www.gayliberation.net/photos/2010/0627gaypride/GLN2010Pride15_LGBTQsDeclaringIndependence.jpg[/img]
From the Gay Liberation Network – Chicago
“No More LGBT Support for the Democratic Party
After four long years of Democratic rule of both congressional houses and going on two years Democratic control of the White House, LGBT people are angered by the lack of action to end the U.S. government’s discrimination against our community.
It is no longer mainly “the big bad Republicans,” but a government dominated by the Democratic Party which is:
* Denying us equal employment protections
* Exiling bi-national couples who can’t get rights to stay here
* Using bigoted standards to discharge us from the military
* Arguing in court to uphold the “Defense of Marriage Act”
* Continuing Bush’s “faith-based” funding of sectarian projects with federal dollars
* Cutting international anti-AIDS funding
* Freezing domestic spending while spreading America’s wars and taking military spending to record levels
Our movement’s dependence upon and subservience to the Democratic Party has proven to be a dead end. We urgently need to win a wave of pro-LGBT rights legislation, but nearly two years of Democratic rule of two branches of the federal government show that only a truly independent movement can win the sweeping changes we need and demand.
In response to the failure of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress to fulfill their many promises, we must inflict pain. That means demonstrations against the main party in power, the Democrats. That means boycotting them and the Republicans in the fall elections.
To those who say that this will only throw the fall elections to the far right, we say that civil rights progress is in no way dependent upon which major party is in power.
Some of the most powerful civil rights progress for women, African Americans and others happened under the far-right Nixon administration, for example. And ironically, it’s been Republican-appointed judges from Massachusetts to California who’ve proven much more likely to support equal marriage rights than Democrats. As ACT-UP in the early 1990s proved against the first President Bush, street activism which genuflects to neither major party is the key means to winning civil rights and saving lives.
The Gay Liberation Network is planning a Chicago action in the second half of September aimed at the politicians that verbally cater to us most, but don’t actually deliver anything.
We’ve heard enough empty promises from “pro-gay” politicians. If we are going to win our rights, it will be despite the opposition of those who forthrightly oppose us, and despite the foot-dragging and covert opposition of those who claim to support us. Our goal is to convince others in the LGBT community to realize that we have more options – the existing political choices do not meet our needs. We will have to win our rights ourselves, in the streets and outside the voting booth.
We invite others to join us in developing coordinated protests in other cities. ”
If you would like to plan an action in your city, please contact Gay Liberation Network at [email protected] or call Andy Thayer at 773-209-1187 or Brent Holman-Gomez at 312-543-7552.
Gay Liberation Network
http://www.GayLiberation.net“