Republican presidential candidates and the gays
August 30, 2011
By Adam Bink
Kerry Eleveld takes a look at the anti-gay rhetoric and personal past history of the Republican field, examining how voters might respond, particularly evangelical Christians and gays. What would be interesting is how LGBT people respond. CNN’s exit poll figure from 2008 pegged the number of self-identified gay voters for McCain at a remarkable 27% — a figure that may be off. How will those voters respond to the Bachmanns of the world? Or Huntsman, who seems to be labeled the “compassionate conservative” of the race, at least when it comes to the gays? Now that Obama has a long record on these issues, how will that factor in? Will the 27% go up or down?
Having technical problems? Visit our support page to report an issue!
15 Comments
1.
Ronnie | August 30, 2011 at 10:59 am
Subscribing & sharing………
14 Top-Rated U.S. Hospitals Pledge LGBT Healthcare Commitment http://instinctmagazine.com/blog/14-top-rated-u-s…
Study: Young Religious People Support Gay Marriage http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/gay-issues…
<3…Ronnie
2.
Sagesse | August 30, 2011 at 11:12 am
I look forward to reading Kerry's piece later. Equality Matters does excellent research, and always has interesting data to back up their analysis.
3.
_BK_ | August 30, 2011 at 11:33 am
I don't understand LGBTs who vote Republican. :\
4.
yoshi | August 30, 2011 at 11:47 am
Mainly because most of us aren't "one issue" voters. Economically speaking many Democrats policies hit me harder than not being able to marry. And it took a Republican group to force the issue with DADT. Saying that the Republicans hard turn toward extreme social issues, no taxes hardline, and the taking of anti-science positions in the last decade make the vast majority of them impossible to vote for. So I'll stick with independent candidates.
5.
James Sweet | August 30, 2011 at 11:52 am
I don't either, but then again I don't understand anyone who would vote for a Republican with today's GOP… The Republican party of 20 years ago was greedy and wrong (IMHO, of course), but the Republican party of today is completely insane!
6.
Fred | August 30, 2011 at 4:04 pm
I can understand the concept of working for change from inside of the GOP. That means working to change the Republican anti-gay planks. I can understand voting for Republican politicians who are essentially neutral on gay issues. What I cannot understand is voting for any politician who actively works against gay rights.
7.
Mookie | August 30, 2011 at 11:42 am
"Compassionate Conservatism" is an oxy-moron. Compassionate means to care about, give freely, to show compassion. Conservativism means a person who conserves, restricts, withholds, rations sparingly.
The two words are at odds….like jumbo shrimp, bitter sweet, deafening silence, or my favorite….open secret.
8.
Ronnie | August 30, 2011 at 12:29 pm
MSNBC's Thomas Roberts speaks with San Francisco couple, Bradford Wells & Anthony John Makk, fighting the deportation of Anthony who is legally married to Bradford & is his primary caregiver. Anthony was scheduled for deportation but the couple is now in limbo after the latest changes in immigration policy by the Obama administration…… Keep up the pressure…..here is the video….. <3…Ronnie:
[youtube ZN1KzKD3y_E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN1KzKD3y_E youtube]
9.
JoeRH | August 30, 2011 at 12:39 pm
About a quarter of self-identified gays voted for McCain? And even with Palin as his running mate?? I guess 1/4 of gay voters are completely incompetent. Yes, there are other issues than gay marriage (and gay rights since the right is always against anything pro-gay), but if the candidate thinks of you as less than a straight citizen, how on earth can you respect that?! Personally, I think more than 50% of the people in this country are complete half-wits, so I guess its only fair to acknowledge that a chunk of them are gay. Hopefully that 27% won't be so brainless come 2012.
10.
DaveP | August 30, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I need to be able to pay my mortgage just as much as anyone. I like to pay lower taxes just as much as anyone. I also like to drive on roads and bridges that are properly maintained and I like to live in a society that has an acceptable amount of crime prevention etc etc etc., same as everyone else.
Sometimes the current govornment does it's job well, and sometimes it doesn't.
But I gotta say – it is extremely important that I use my voice and my vote to prevent our govornment from turning into something that will actively seek to harm me, to further strip me of my equal rights, and to maliciously work to impede my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I'm not just talking about marriage equality.
A fair and just govornment that sometimes doesn't work so well is FAR better than a vindictive and bigoted govornment that actually wants to harm me and interfere with my life.
Any LGBT person who doesn't see this is tragically shortsighted and is part of the problem.
11.
Phillip R | August 30, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I am not sure if it's just me but it seems that all the GOP frontrunners this election are far right extremists. More so than previous elections. I tend to go with moderate candidates as extremes aren't helpful for anyone so that pretty much seals my vote already.
I never vote solely on the gay rights issue but I find it very difficult to vote for any candidates that are all to happy to show contempt for a sect of the population (some of which supported them in the first place). I believe that a leader should a certain level of respect for all of their followers regardless of their personal opinions.
12.
nightshayde | August 30, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Our whole elections system seems to be fairly whacked. I don't think either a far-left liberal or a far-right conservative could win any general election when pitted against a moderate. I'm not sure what would happen if you were to pit a far-left liberal against a far-right conservative, but I fear it would be a rather close battle. Unfortunately, it seems that only the far-right wingnuts do well in Republican primaries — at least in certain areas of the country.
I'm really really hoping that there are enough intelligent (and willing to vote) people in the country to reject any of the far-right wingnuts. Bachmann, Palin, Perry, anyone else cut from the same cloth — DO NOT WANT. I'd love to have a far-left liberal in office, but I know that likely won't happen. Hey – a girl can dream…
13.
Lodi Gal | August 31, 2011 at 6:58 am
Not sure if this had been posted on this website yet, but you can send an email to the school board members in Lake Country, Florida, asking them to do something about the anti-gay bullying going on in their classrooms. This is the school district where the teacher posted anti-gay comments on facebook and then the KKK pressured the school to reinstate him. Now it's come out that he says this same hateful stuff in the classroom. Make your thoughts on this known to school officials by visiting the Equality Florida website.
https://secure3.convio.net/eqfl/site/Advocacy?cmd…
14.
Ann S. | August 31, 2011 at 8:11 am
Thanks, I used that to send a message to the school officials.
15.
writerJerome | August 31, 2011 at 8:57 pm
The 27% for McCain was a totally false guesstimate by self-hating homophobes from the so-called Gay Patriot (which is neither gay nor patriotic) blog. They work for the GOP and claim to be gay men, but they are against marriage equality, gay civil rights, etc. And they allow hate groups to campaign against gays in their comments section, but they block those who want to support office holders who are openly gay.