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August 28, 2007
The GOP, hypocrisy and tap-dancing to infamy
There's been a bit of back-and-forth on the DN's Friendly Fire blog about Sen. Larry Craig and his sexual orientation. Editor Chris Weinkopf asks if Craig is really a hypocrite if he's gay and against gay marriage.
I would answer yes. A gay man against gay marriage is like a woman who believes she's too emotional to be given the right to vote. Very few of us try to deny ourselves rights that others have; doing so is suspicious at best.
Even so, the hypocrisy isn't so much in his stance on gay marriage. The fact that Craig is a Republican means he's part of a party that has used homosexuality as a wedge issue, presented gays as different than "regular" Americans, and sought to deny them the ability to marry.
The reason liberals like myself chuckle when Republicans are outted is that it does away with the whole idea of gays being the "other." When a gay Republican comes to light, it drives home a point no doubt very disturbing to hard-core right-wingers: Gays are as American as apple pie, and from the halls of Congress to your most conservative evangelical institutions, they walk among you.
Posted by Greg Sidor at August 28, 2007 08:01 PM