Republican Party: generational change is driving a rethink on gay rights

Quote:
There are signs that the GOP is going soft on gay rights. A couple of weeks ago, a city in Illinois elected its first ever gay alderman – a Republican called Cory Jobe. Fred Karger, a gay political consultant, has declared an admirably ambitious campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. In the past year, the LGBT Log Cabin Republicans group has been entertained by former UN Ambassador John Bolton and former Vice President d*** Cheney. Donald Rumsfeld has endorsed repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell rule that banned open homosexuals from serving in the military. Even Ann Coulter – the redneck’s Dorothy Parker – has told conservatives that it’s time to reach out to gay taxpayers.




It’s hard to believe from the heat of the rhetoric, but traditionalists really are losing the battle over gay rights. Their leadership is still reeling from the 2006-2008 scandal cycle that unearthed a lot of transgressive sex in the conservative camp. The discovery of Senator Larry Craig (maybe) trying to pick up a male police officer in an airport restroom, or the revelation that Pastor Ted Haggard (definitely) purchased crystal meth from a gay prostitute, humiliated the Right-wing establishment. It suggested a seedy backroom world where moral hypocrites said one thing and did another

In contrast, pro-gay activists have done an excellent job of portraying themselves as upright, ordinary folk just trying to claim the rights that everybody else already has. They’ve been doing this since the mid-1990s, when the AIDS crisis forced a rethink in strategy. They threw out the old Harvey Milk-type militancy and tried to appear bourgeois and respectable

@sister_of_mercy Said

I have to say I don't like the tone in that article at all. That surprises me really as The Telegraph isn't known to be quite as bad as other tabloid papers. Gives Royal Holloway a bit of a bad rep as well.

@drman321 Said

It is accurate. The vast majority of the folks who are against gay rights are old and dying. Once their generation dies out we will wonder why we were ever so bigoted. The same thing happened in the US with African Americans. We had to wait for the generation of the kids of the last slave owners to die out before we could pass any meaningful Civil Rights laws.

@white_swan53 Said

Do you find anything wrong with the tone of the article ?

@alk1975 Said

I see it. Pro-gay activists have done an excellent job of portraying themselves as upright... (because hey, we all know they aren't REALLY upright, right?)

It suggested a seedy backroom world where moral hypocrites said one thing and did another... (this was really just smoke and mirrors?)

The implication appears to be that gays are winning rights through shady means.

Quote:
The contemporary movement is so sober it’s almost sexless. Take Los Angeles-based pro-gay marriage group Love Honor Cherish. Its very name smacks of traditional values of vows and vicars.

@Electric_Banana Said

A lot of your politicians and decision makers might be gay themselves and never let on.

No one will know for certain. Women never make the first move.

And the person that wrote this article sounds biased against gays.

Gays are really no one's business. It's hard enough for people to get laid without everyone making laws and regulations against whom they lay.