We’re Here, We’re Queer… We’re Conservative

I have had to come out twice in my life. The first time I came out, I told friends and family that I’m gay — that I’m attracted to other men, and that eventually I want to find the right man and spend the rest of my life with him. My second coming out has been more recent, as I have told the very friends and family who were supportive and accepting of my sexual orientation that I am a conservative Republican. Some have been just as supportive and accepting as they were before; others, less so.

The new challenge facing me is to be a conservative and a member of the Republican Party as an openly gay American. So far, the handful of College Republicans I’ve come out to, the faces of conservatism for me on a day to day basis, have been accepting. But events at last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) demonstrate that there is, unfortunately, another side to the story. There are those who think gay conservatives should be excluded from the effort to take back America. Enter the now infamous Ryan Sorba:

It should be noted, although it rarely has been by the mainstream media, that Sorba’s anti-gay rant was preceded by a very different speech by Alexander McCobin, co-founder and president of Students for Liberty:

I prefer to believe that McCobin speaks for the majority of today’s young conservatives. Ryan Sorba’s ignorant hatred aside, last weekend was a good weekend to be a gay conservative. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, came out in favor of repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy banning gays and lesbians from serving in the military. GOProud had a booth at CPAC. Alexander McCobin spoke in favor of gay participation at CPAC, and when Ryan Sorba stood up to have his Kanye West moment he was booed off stage. All good news.

I think for me, though, the best news was maybe a little less significant. It was seeing several of my fellow College Republicans who attended CPAC speaking out against Sorba through Facebook and other social networking and new media. It was seeing, for example, fellow Ohio University College Republican and blogging colleague Jesse Hathaway (Athens Runaway) take on Sorba’s idiocy via his blog. The Cheneys opposing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Great. But the people I’ll be working with at the grassroots level to get conservatives elected this November speaking out to say there’s a place for me in this movement? Far better.

Now that we’ve got the touchy-feely fluffy goodness out of the way, a message to Ryan Sorba and all who think like him:

We’re here. We’re queer. We’re conservative. Get used to it.

I believe in a government that respects the limitations upon its power set by our Constitution. I believe that men like George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the rest of our founding fathers knew better how government should work than a leftist law professor and community organizer who lied, manipulated, and intimidated his way into the presidency. I believe in a liberal democracy in which people live freely to pursue their own happiness, not the brave new world being foisted on us by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.

I believe that the best way to grow our economy is to shrink our government. Those taxes they want to collect to dole out pork projects to their benefactors certainly haven’t done the job. Taking even more of the American worker’s money to take over health care and energy certainly aren’t good answers to our problems either. If we want to stimulate our economy, the best way to do that is to put our citizens’ own money back in their own hands. Cut taxes. Cut spending. Reduce the deficit. Let the market reward the responsible and punish the irresponsible.

I also believe that we are at war with an enemy that hates us because we love liberty, an enemy that knows no borders and has from time to time infiltrated our own. As a gay American, I know the very real threat posed by Islamic terrorists. Just look at the terrorism perpetrated against gays and lesbians by the Islamic “Republic” of Iran. I believe we need leadership that recognizes this war as a war, rather than a president who wants to bury his head in the sand and pretend we can go back to those heady times when the last Democrat president treated terrorists as common criminals.

My message to Ryan Sorba and his ilk? Like it or not, I’m here — and so are other gay conservatives just like me. We’re here because, frankly, where else would we go? Over to the Democrats, who give gays and lesbians a wink and a nod during campaign season and forget all about us — or actively work against us — when it comes time to actually govern? Should we go to the Democrats, even though we believe their policies are destroying the fabric of our constitutional government, wrecking our economy, and endangering our national security?

Maybe Ryan Sorba would like us to head over to the Democrat Party. I believe most conservatives, especially most younger conservatives, would strongly disagree with him. But more importantly, I believe that the path to freedom, prosperity, and security for gays and lesbians lies within the conservative movement and the Republican Party. How could I go anywhere else? So, Mr. Sorba, I’m sticking around. Should we cross paths at any point in the future, I guess there’s only one thing left for me to say to you: Bring it. I love it.

Memo to HillBuzz: Stop the Outing

I think I can speak for a lot of libertarians and conservatives in saying that we’re glad to have the folks at HillBuzz on our side. They proved themselves to be a force to be reckoned with during Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign, and afterward they jumped the Democratic ship and worked hard for the McCain-Palin campaign against Barack Obama (whom they refer to as “Dr. Utopia”). Right now they’re working against Obama’s radical agenda and are insisting that every Democrat who voted for ObamaCare needs to be purged from Congress.

We’re glad to have them onboard, but this has to stop:

[Florida Gov. Charlie] Crist is, of course, a former patron of the Green Iguana [gay] bar in Tampa, Florida, whose recent marriage to novelty products and fake beards heiress Carole Rome fools no one. . . .

The MSM does not want Dr. Utopia to squeak by with a win, they want him to have a blowout. So, the MSM will push whatever man they think could flame out most spectacularly in 2012. Ain’t no bigger flamer than Charlie Crist. At least that’s what they say down at the Green Iguana.

This is just the latest in a series of HillBuzz posts that have cited so far unsubstantiated rumors that several prominent Republicans — Crist, Illinois Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk, and Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock — are in fact gay. HillBuzz insists that they are citing such rumors for the good of the Republican Party because, they say, Democrats are planning to out these guys. HillBuzz argues that Dems are going to out Kirk as soon as he wins the Illinois GOP primary, that they will do the same to Crist if he runs for president, and that they’re planning to out Schock if he challenges Dick Durbin for his Senate seat in 2014.

The problem here is that by spreading these rumors, HillBuzz is actually doing the Democrats’ work for them. They are the ones who are outing these guys right now and drawing media attention to rumors that they are gay. In fact, Democrats didn’t have to wait to out Kirk; a wacko primary opponent, Andy Martin, has already done it for them. From CBS News:

Candidate Andy Martin launched a radio ad on Monday against Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination in the 2010 Illinois Senate race. The ad calls into question Kirk’s sexuality. Martin claims Kirk “lives in some kind of ‘Animal House’ in Washington with another gay congressman,” reports CBS 2 Chicago.

Martin says his ad is based on a “solid rumor on the Internet,” CBS 2 reports. . . .

Emphasis mine. We can’t know for sure where Martin found his “solid rumor on the Internet.” But it’s clear that the content of Martin’s ad is virtually identical to the claims that HillBuzz made here:

Kirk not only has infuriated conservatives and moderates in Illinois by supporting Cap & Tax, but he’s a fatally flawed candidate who Democrats are going to expose as a liar and adulterer in the general election. It is an open secret in Illinois that Kirk is gay, and just about everyone in Republican circles has heard the salacious details of his nocturnal antics, as revealed by his own wife in what’s been a nasty divorce. . . .

Voters don’t care if you are gay, but they do care if you are a sleazeball who cheats on your wife with men and gets up to all manner of shennanigans while you are in Washington, typically involving the other closet case you share your Washington condo with.

Again, all emphasis is mine. HillBuzz posted the above on December 28, the same day that Martin released his radio ad. They made identical claims less than two weeks ago on December 18, also writing the following about rising star Aaron Schock, the youngest member of Congress who is currently serving a district once served by Abraham Lincoln:

It is an open secret he is gay…and we finally got confirmation that Democrats do, indeed, have photos of Schock out in Chicago with other men. We’ve been hearing for months this was true, and we’ve seen Schock with our own eyes out in Boystown, having very indiscrete times with Aberzombie sorts of guys. Apparently, he has a boyfriend back in Peoria everyone knows about too. Dems we know here in Chicago had asked us to try to get pics of Schock in MiniBar or other spots in Boystown, but we never got pictures of him. Well, we found out on Wednesday that others do have the pictures. But, they will be held for years until Schock tries to run for Senate himself.

By then, very foolish advisors in the GOP will have set him up with a fake wife, and maybe even a kid for a prop. But those pictures of Schock in bars will always be out there…and then when he runs for Senate…BOOM…another Jack Ryan, another Mark Kirk. It is widely expected Schock will run for Senate in 2014, to challenge Dick Durbin.

It may well be that Crist, Kirk, and Schock are all gay. That’s their business, and that’s the point. Gay Republicans (and our allies, like the guys at HillBuzz) should maintain a united front on this issue. It is always inappropriate to invade someone’s personal life and do personal damage for political gain. In the case of Mark Kirk, there’s a military career at stake. In Crist’s case, a marriage — whether it’s a sham, as rumored, or not. In Schock’s case? Who knows? If in fact he is gay, and these aren’t just rumors, has anyone stopped to think how friends and family members might react when he’s outed?

Gay Republicans and allies need to stand up to those who would out their fellow gays and lesbians and say: Enough, and no more. We need to make Democrats own their manipulation of sexual orientation, their blatant use of anti-gay discrimination for their own political gain. We need to point out that the party of supposed tolerance, acceptance, and welcoming of gays and lesbians is ready to destroy the lives of gays and lesbians who don’t toe the party line. Make them own their quiet bigotry.

That becomes a lot harder to do when people on our side are outing these guys before Democrats get the chance. So, memo to HillBuzz: Stop the outing. Make the Democrats own it instead.

UPDATE (1/26/10): I want to make clear that this post predates and has nothing to do with the recent left wing smear against HillBuzz. I’m posting this update because this post has been receiving more attention lately than it did when I actually posted it, and I don’t want what I’ve written above to be construed as in any way supportive of liberal attempts to silence the folks writing at HillBuzz.

This post was intended as constructive criticism of a blog that I, as a conservative, consider an important ally in the fight to take back America. I disagree with HillBuzz’s decision to publish rumors regarding the sexual orientation of certain politicians, but for the same reasons that I disagree with that decision I strongly oppose liberal efforts to reveal the identities of HillBuzz bloggers in an attempt to cause personal destruction and, ultimately, silence them.

Like most of the conservative blogosphere, I stand in solidarity with HillBuzz and I hope they will continue to fight for what they believe in despite liberal efforts to shut them up.

Great Idea Guys!

Because nothing could possibly go wrong with this (h/t Instapundit):

Starting next fall, Columbia University in New York City will institute a “gender neutral” housing policy for everyone but freshman (sic). This means guys and gals can share a room.

Of course leftists think this is a fantastic idea. We’ll see.

Jennings Must Go

This post is not safe for work. The fact that it also involves the Obama administration’s “safe schools czar,” Kevin Jennings, means that Mr. Jennings must go.

It’s sort of old news now. Jennings was the keynote speaker at a Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) conference for high schoolers as young as 14 years old. During that conference, kids learned about fisting and golden showers (feel free to look them up, but if you don’t know, I ain’t tellin’ ya). They learned where they could find the most happenin’ gay bars (mind you, none of them could legally get in). And they learned how to avoid all the mess that could result from having sex in a public park.

The leftists at Media Matters think this is a non-scandal. Gateway Pundit (along with many, many others) disagrees and promises that there is even more to come.

There doesn’t need to be more. Jennings should be fired and he should be fired right now. There should be no need for pending legislation that calls on President Obama to fire Mr. Jennings; he should have done it as soon as this scandal broke. The fact that he has not tells you more about what he thinks is appropriate “sex education” and what he really thinks about “safe schools” than anything he has said or will say.

But there is an even bigger point to be made here. Yes, Jennings should be fired — but he should never have been hired to begin with. The proliferation of unconfirmed and unaccountable czars has to stop. This is why the Senate is supposed to give its “advice and consent” to presidential appointments. Had Jennings faced a confirmation hearing and had this been revealed during the hearing (it would have), does anyone seriously think the Senate would have confirmed him?

I commend Republican Texas Rep. Michael Burgess for introducing H. Res. 966 to pressure the president to fire Mr. Jennings, and Congress should pass the resolution without delay. But we need more than a non-binding resolution that attacks a symptom rather than curing the disease. We need legislation that will end the bureaucratic nightmare of unconfirmed czars.

The Adam Lambert Effect

When I was in high school, I was confused about my sexuality — and that’s an understatement. I knew that I was attracted to girls, but I also knew that I was attracted to other guys. Since then I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m bisexual, which is to say that I’m attracted to people of both sexes and I’m open to eventually falling in love with someone of either sex. Because I was uncertain at the time, I chose to keep my confusion largely to myself. In the parlance of gay culture, I was in the closet.

That didn’t stop my peers at my Catholic high school from picking up on my sexual ambiguity. Maybe it was because I was quieter than most of the other guys. Maybe it was because I was as awkward around the quarterback of the football team as I was around the head cheerleader. Maybe it was because I didn’t play any sports and I was more likely to be a girl’s best friend than her boyfriend.

Whatever tipped them off, the kids I went to school with thought I was gay, and they — especially the other guys — let me know it. They bullied and humiliated me. They made fun of me behind my back and right in front of me, using the colorful pejoratives that most are familiar with. For most of my freshman year I hid in the second floor boys’ restroom instead of going to the cafeteria for lunch. When I thought about signing up for the wrestling team during my sophomore year, one of the wrestlers caught wind of it and advised one of my friends that I wasn’t cut out to wrestle and implied that I was only thinking about joining the team to check out the other guys in the locker room and maybe cop a feel on the mat. I never signed up for the wrestling team.

This isn’t meant to be some personal sob story. Things eventually improved for me in high school, as things in high school often do. By my junior year the upperclassmen who had bullied me had graduated and the neanderthals in my own class had moved on to bullying underclassmen. At the end of my junior year some strange reversal occurred and I was elected student council vice president for the following year. As a senior, in addition to serving on student council, I was the editor of the school newspaper.

Levi, Track, and What Makes an Icon

B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriot) ponders Joy Behar’s assertion that Levi Johnston has become a gay icon, writing:

If he were such an icon, it would provide additional evidence of the politicization of gay culture, where a man is celebrated merely because he has spoken out against an approved villain of the gay establishment. And the primary qualification for being such a villain is being a conservative politician with a popular following.

I’m sure that’s part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole deal. I think there are at least two other reasons why Johnston has become a “gay icon” (if in fact he can be elevated to such a status, personally I think he’s a flash in the pan).

1) Johnston has become associated with a more celebrated gay icon, Kathy Griffin. Griffin has made Johnston sort of a pet project, no doubt because of her own hatred for Sarah Palin. Johnston is icon by association, celebrated by gay culture because another icon of gay culture has deemed it so.

2) Johnston is somewhat physically attractive and was willing to take his clothes off in Playgirl. This is probably the biggest reason he’s become a “gay icon” — he’s a piece of meat. He is popular with gay men for the same reason Pamela Anderson and Jenna Jameson are popular with straight men.

On this latter note, I’m just not sure I see it. Sure, I guess Johnston is physically attractive enough. But when you stop to realize that his claim to fame is abandoning his son and his son’s mother, while defaming his son’s grandmother (who, by the way, is taking care of his son) — well, that just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve always found Track Palin, the oldest of the Palin children, to be more attractive…

Track Palin, left

I mean, after all, he loves his family and thinks about somebody other than himself…

Palin family. Track (top left), Willow (bottom left), Sarah (top center), Piper (bottom center), Todd (top right), and Bristol (bottom right). Taken before the birth of Trig Palin and Tripp Johnston.

And unlike Levi, Track has proven to be a responsible young man rather than an irresponsible and petulant boy.

2008 Republican National Convention. From left to right: Track Palin, Bristol Palin (holding baby brother Trig), and Levi Johnston. Note Track's haircut as he prepared to deploy to Iraq.

Sure, if gay men want to turn Levi Johnston into a gay icon, I guess I can understand that. Johnston did take his clothes off for them. But they might want to consider icons who have something going on not only under their clothes but beneath the flesh that it covers. Levi Johnston might have the body of a man and he might even have shown it off in Playgirl. But he’s not a man, and he won’t be until he takes responsibility for his son and his son’s mother, and until he stops talking trash about his son’s grandmother and current caregiver.

Of the two young men in the Palin orbit, it is Track Palin who has proven his true manhood through his brave actions rather than taking off his clothes for the highest bidder. Maybe he, rather than Levi Johnston, should be the icon for gay men and men in general for that matter.