Excellent comment from “NoVAGayDem” today:
Waldo, you make an important point about Republicans needing to become more tolerant of homosexuality. While I am not advocating efforts to use the perceived sexual orientation of an Ed Schrock or a Jerry Kilgore against them, it strikes me an rather hypocritical for them to be outraged by this while both have fought [tirelessly] against legislation that would protect people from employment discrimination based on their PERCEIVED or real sexual orientation. It remains legal to fire someone in VA for being gay… but also for SEEMING gay… or even for NOT being gay. I’d hope that the Republican party would learn that it is time to pass an employment non-discrimination law to stop this once and for all.
Will the current kerfuffle serve as a hard-knock education on tolerance for Republicans?
I don’t agree that it’s an excellent comment because I don’t agree with the premise. As I’ve already explained elsewhere, it’s easier to be gay among Republicans than Republican among gays. Are there intolerant members of the Republican Party? Duh. Does the Republican Party have a monopoly on sexual orientation intolerance? No. Who voted for HB 751 last year? Or the first reading of the same-sex marriage amendment this year?
Republican “outrage” (which I’ve already said is feigned (or should be)) is justified, if it need be at all (and if it were real), on the basis that the allegation is false. It’s certainly not hypocritical (assuming the premise that Republicans consider homosexuals inferior, as a commentator on the parent thread says) for them to react negatively to the allegation that one of their own is in this category. Outrage is a perfectly justifiable reaction to a personal insult, which is what the allegations of Mr. Kilgore’s homosexuality would be, if one bought into this theory of what Republicans consider homosexuals to be. If one sincerely and passionately bought into a theory that blonds were stupid, and someone alleged Mr. Kilgore to be blond (which he is not), one might be similarly outraged.
As I’ve already explained elsewhere, it’s easier to be gay among Republicans than Republican among gays.
FWIW, I’ve been stewing over writing something on this for the past few months. There’s a widespread misconception among my fellow Democrats that to be a gay Republican is hypocritical — that it’s like being a black member of the KKK. I understand why this is thought to be the case (I believed just such a thing up until a couple of years ago), but quite the opposite is true, as you allude to here.
sure, a few dems voted for HB751. And a few dems in Virginia are homophobic. But honestly – 50% of the Republican party’s electoral strategy in 2004 was to use gays to scare senior citizens and homophobes.