eva young
Eva Young is President of Log Cabin Republicans of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Kiddleleewink. You can also read her other blog here.
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September 19, 2004

Carol Newman, and alternate delegate to the convention from California has an oped in the Advocate.

She asks some provacative questions:

support many of Bush’s policies, including a strong defense, a decisive response to terrorism, and lower taxes, and I am no fan of John Kerry. I am incensed, however, at Bush’s use of gays and lesbians as pawns in this election. I cannot condone that strategy no matter what its purported justification may be. And Kerry is marginally better on gay issues. I do not yet know who I will vote for in November. But I do know that I will not drop out of the Republican Party.

If I drop out of the party, the religious right wins. Much as we might like to believe that a third party is the answer, no third party has been able to consistently garner a substantial portion of the vote in the United States. Our government is, for better or worse, a two-party system. That is the very reason the religious right has sought to take over the Republican Party, and that is why the struggle for the heart of the party is so important. We cannot cede control to the Jerry Falwells and the Rick Santorums.

Carol hits the nail on the head here. That's why the Leviticus Crowd is doing whatever they can to drive gays out of the party.

Carol continues:

I find myself trying to get beyond my anger to determine what my vote will accomplish in terms of policy. Should I support Bush because, as has often been said, gay marriage is meaningless if we are killed in a suicide bombing? Should I oppose Bush in hopes that his loss will make the party see the light of day and become more inclusive and tolerant?

To those who say that is impossible, just look at California: After years of losing at the polls because statewide candidates were too conservative, the Republican Party in California faced a crisis. As a result, it has become more moderate in the last couple of years in order to survive. Hope springs eternal that this could happen on a national level.

I am concerned that Bush may choose Supreme Court justices based upon their positions on gay rights and choice. Nevertheless, justices chosen in the past because they were thought to be ultraconservative have not always proved to be so—among them, Justices O’Connor, Souter, and Kennedy. A worthy Supreme Court justice will make up his or her own mind on the issues regardless of politics.

Should I base my vote on my fear, or on my hope?

Looking beyond election day, those of us who continue to believe in the core values of the Republican Party, the values the party is supposed to stand for—a strong defense, fiscal conservatism, personal responsibility, lower taxes, freedom, small government, and personal privacy—will not give up.

As Patrick Guerriero of the Log Cabin Republicans has said, “The fight is bigger than one platform, one convention, or one president.” Whatever happens in November, we will continue to support the two-party system and to make sure that both parties, at least sometimes, field candidates who are worthy of our votes.

Exactly. Unfortunately what happens far too often, is that it seems that many gay democrats WANT anti-gay Republican candidates because that make it easier for them to deliver gay votes to the Dems. Ofcourse sometimes anti-gay candidates that get through primaries win general elections.

UPDATE: Dennis Sanders at Moderate Republican has more.