Don't close the door on gays, the Tories tell America

Most of the base of the party is. And the ones who are more centrist don't have enough voice to silence the fanatics unfortunately. Just like John McCain. I really do believe at the bottom of my heart that he supports gay marriage like his wife and daughter but has to say he doesn't because he's a prominent figure amongst Republicans and doesn't want to risk alienating a good portion of his supporters. It's sad too because if the right embraced gay constituents they'd really have quite a bit of support; there are more Log Cabin Republicans than people think there are. Unfortunately the loss of most of their base which is anti gay would probably outweigh the gay constituents they would gain and they probably aren't willing to risk that.

 

If by right-wing he means religious right-wing, then it's a real uphill battle. They are entrenched in their belief that being gay is an aberration, a corruption of being made in the image of God. Until they are willing to let go of that and see sexuality in its various permutations as part of the mystery of being made in the image of God, they are stuck.

And all of the genetic and scientific studies in the world won't convince them. They will simply argue that the genetic component is still a defect, in the same way that a genetic disposition to alcoholism or some disease is a defect.

I wish I knew what would change this but the religious conservatives I know have built a neat, little box around their world.

 

put it this way... they are fucked either way.

Support gays, and the fundie right winger fringes will fight to put like minded people on the tickets... people with hate in their hearts can raise alot of money through their fears and lies. prop 8 is proof.

not support gays, and they will continue to alienate more and more people as the LGBT movement continues to grow and humanize a issue that anti-gay rights advocates have been trying to demonize and dehumanize for decades.

they are screwed no matter what. the most damaging thing ever was the tea party, which has driven more of the moderates, who truly count, to become independents and libritarians (where conservative moderates can continue to hold conservative values, while distancing themselves from the more extremist and hate based views of growing factions within the right wing.)

it seems (contrary to fox news) that most republicans are now evaluating their views as a individual, and so the devision we are seeing is that more republicans and conservatives are now finding a chance to voice their support for gay rights (cindy and megan mccain, ted olson, olympia snowe, heck, even a fox news anchor spoke out for gay marriage).

So, the speaker calling for support of gay rights is not alone. It ultimately is up to those who share the support of gay rights to stand up and let people know they exist.

We, as LGBT members of the world community have a responciblity to stand up, and adovcate for those voices.

 

wow im shocked

how rare for conservatives to actually make a point and of this nature and in such an open forum, still i dont trust them as far as i could throw them. and i hate to say it but i dont know how many follow the uk politics but theres been a big kinda bitch fight about lgbt rights.

ages ago when conservatives were in govt they had load of really unfair laws towards lgbt people i mean nasty stuff they were always the party of the rich and old fashioned seeing us as unnatural and devil spawn. then labour got in and did a bit but always treated it like we should be thankful and that they gave us great presents. lib dems have always been lgbt friendly looking for equality. well the Tories have tried to get the #gay' vote of late trying to get a bit of extra support for the elections but trust me it aint working simply as they have offered no proposals or offers of full marriage or anything and have wanted to support family marriage and give tax breaks to married people which will discriminate. the lib dems shot back dont trust the Tories and said they will support same sex marriage and full equal rights, and the great news is at the moment nobody likes about but nobody really knows what conservatives really want to do...so it could end up as a hung parliament and the lib dems will get some say in policy making so they can push lgbt rights down Tories throats.


so sorry to say this just seems like a political sound bite even though the principal is good.

 

The Tories are just looking for votes. Same as every other political party in the UK at the moment. What they're doing is reaching out to the gays, who are typical Liberal Democrat voters, as well as other Lib Dems because everybody knows that the Lib Dems aren't going to win.

It's the same before every close election, both Labour and the Tories will stop at nothing pandering for votes from any which way they can, either from each other, or from the Lib Dems, or from smaller parties.

I live in one of the constituencies which tends to swing, so god do I hear all about everything. They're all running scared.

 

Nick Herbert's speech at this event was brilliant. It's the first speech here, and well worth spending 20 mins watching. He himself is obviously serious about equality, and I think the more it's promoted from a conservative point of view, the more we'll win over to our side on this.

http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=6987

(By the way, I tried embedding the code, and it didn't work. Can that be done)

 

^ quite a speech.