At the risk of starting a political firestorm, I must say this:

I think that you do have every right to make this post. Political opinions,religion and other such things are not an indicator of someone's capability to accept others as they are without judgement. One of the most open and accepting people I know happens to be a right wing catholic priest.

 

Yeah. I used to be more conservative (now I'm just Libertarian) and was always pro-LGBT. I know lots of conservative people who are pro-LGBT. I really dislike how people act like it's necessarily homophobic to be religious and right-wing/Republican/conservative.

 

I think most people probably have a few topics their views don't completely match up with the majority of their stance. Somethings I like what one side says about it, and other things I think the other side is dumber than a box of rocks.

The world is not black and white, but lots and lots of grays.

 

The word "conservative" means different things in different parts of the world. In Western Europe, many conservatives are socially liberal, supporting issues like LGBT rights, gender equality, fair access to abortion and birth control. Most post-war Conservative Prime Minsters in the UK (Thatcher excepted) have been of a liberal mind on social issues.

 

My country is led by a pro-LGBT liberal-conservative. So are Britain, New Zealand and to a lesser extent Germany.

It should be no great controversy. But I guess in the US politics is incredibly polarised and uniformity is expected of members of political parties or those who identify with a side of politics - and there's pressure to identify as such.

 

When it comes to LGBT folk who are conservative/Republican, I always stop and think of how they got to that choice. I am a firm believer that many LGBT Republicans fall into one of two camps: they were raised that way or they seek some sort of power/validation from a group that seems to be a bit more "rarefied" in its membership, especially to certain groups. Now, I was born and raised in Texas so I can certainly explain how many gay Texans could be Republican, but when someone form the bastions of liberalism says they are a Republican, I do raise my eyebrow and think to myself (because momma raised me right) how they got to that.

There isn't anything I find wrong with conservatism, per se, but as others have noted, in the United States we seem to have an interesting side of it. You have the "religious right," the "tea partiers" (interesting that they actually base their name on an event that was a classic case of destruction of private property), libertarians, etc. They may use different ideologies to defend a particular position, but it oftentimes is two sides of the same coin. For example, with gay marriage, you had the "religious right" who would basically say it was wrong because God. Then, you had some branches of conservatism say "states' rights" and how the matter was for the states to decide and not a federal issue and liberty and whatnot. Interestingly, the latter would oftentimes say gay marriage was a "state issue" and would also claim to love freedom and the right of contracts, but would oppose gay marriage at the state level for [insert whatever justification]. Talk about hypocrisy.

That said, US conservatism isn't a monolith. You have the religious man who is conservative but also believes the words of Jesus commands the government to take care of the less fortunate; you have the libertarian who is against federal laws regarding LGBT issues but is strongly for it at the state level. Unfortunately, in the US, there seems to be a lack of diversity of thought at the upper echelons of the conservative movement(s).