The rise of the political unicorns

Christopher R. Barron
The Daily Caller
9/25/2010

What strange bedfellows politics makes; take the curious case of gay conservatives. Both the gay left and the professional anti-gay industry in this country would have you believe that the gay community is homogenous. Both the gay left and the anti-gay-for-pay right want Americans to believe that the gay community is uniformly liberal, slavishly loyal to the Democratic Party, and unquestioning in their allegiance to the “progressive” agenda. Both treat the idea of gay conservatives as a novelty, political unicorns. The reality, of course, is nothing near what this political odd couple would have you believe — indeed 27% of self-identified gay and lesbian voters chose John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008. That’s a figure that translates to roughly 1.7 million gay votes for McCain/Palin. If gay conservatives are unicorns, our herd is huge.

…Our [GOProud] agenda is unlike the agenda of any other gay organization. Instead of fighting to expand the federal government through hate crimes laws or federal employment non-discrimination legislation, legislation that only impacts a sliver of gay people, we instead focus on issues like taxes, healthcare, retirement security, and the economy — we offer gay Americans pragmatic, common-sense conservative approaches to these issues that will improve their lives, as well as the lives of all Americans.

We believe strongly that the federal government doesn’t have all the answers to the challenges facing gay and lesbian families. Indeed, we believe that often the federal government is the problem — not the solution…

Read the complete article at The Daily Caller.

Also at The Daily Caller: I’m gay. I don’t care about DADT. Here’s why.

H/T Gay Patriot

Update: At Politico, “They’re gay, conservative and proud.” :

NEW YORK — Even among the gays, the right is on the rise.

The broad surge in the conservative grassroots made it as far as PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s grand apartment overlooking New York’s Union Square Tuesday night, where about 150 backers of the conservative gay group GOProud gathered to laugh at Ann Coulter’s red meat riffs on Democrats, blacks, and the Obamas at a fundraiser organizers touted as “Homocon.”

GOProud is the tea party of the gay rights movement, with well-tailored dark suits in place of revolutionary war garb. The event, complete with lithe young men in black “Freedom is Fabulous” t-shirts guiding guests to the elevator, marked a new high tide in the shift of the Republican Party away from “social issues” and toward a broader complaint about Democratic management of the economy, national security, and the idea of America. GOProud is an explicitly gay group that isn’t particularly focused on gay rights, and Coulter’s speech – full of conservative red meat, and only the occasional Judy Garland joke – reflected its focus.

The gay right is thriving at a moment that the mainstream gay rights movement faces a profound crisis…

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