Is Everyone Gay, or Just Republican Congressmen?

Wow. Is this National Coming Out Month? I never pay attention to that stuff anymore, since the only person who doesn't know I'm gay is my mother (she still thinks of it as a phase, even though it has lasted 40 some years). It sure seems as if a lot of Republicans are coming out, there was the Foley thing a couple of weeks ago, and now there is an investigation into some camping trip taken by Jim Kolbe the Republican from Tuscan AZ back in 96 that involved a couple of former pages. Before last week, I didn't think there were any gay Republicans, except that strange bunch that frequent log cabins in the woods. Every gay man I know would never take a camping trip, or choose to stay in a log cabin, unless that log cabin came with a five star rating. My friends will sometimes stay in a 3 star hotel, but only if there is nothing else available.

But my friends are all Democrats.

I don't know if there is a common link between gay Republicans, and frolics in wooded areas with minors, but I figure that if the people you hang with despise your lifestyle and work to deny you the basic rights of other Americans, then you might not have a whole lot of self esteem. If you are gay, and you hold with the philosophy that all gay people are sinners, then having an odd attraction to minors might seem pretty normal. If you hang with Democrats, then the people around you accept your orientation, and believe that you have the right to love whomever you choose, openly and with the blessing of your community, and you would believe that it is possible to seek a lasting relationship with a family that you choose to nurture. When people believe that they have value, they seek the light, not the dark places in the shameful wooded areas, not the dimly lit closets of homophobia, but our place as a citizen with rights just like others.

I'm not sure how I feel about the purging of gay men from the Republican Party. I certainly don't believe in outing people by force, since taking the step out of that dark place on your own when you're ready, is such an important part of human growth. I don't know if I will feel happy if the Republicans lose the House and possibly the Senate because of a couple of gay men. In a perfect world, the Democrats should win because the idea of equality is a universal American value. If Democrats take the House and the Senate because the Christian Right hates gay people, it will be an empty victory.

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