Saturday, March 29, 2014

Don't Fall for the New Myth that Republicans are Driving LGBT Progress


Perhaps a few Republicans and conservatives are slowly waking up the the reality that the GOP's anti-gay stance is toxic to its long term survival.  But sadly, instead of making any real change to the GOP heinously anti-gay agenda, some in the GOP and apologists in the news media are trying to create a myth that the GOP isn't really anti-gay.  One GOP candidate with whom I am having dialogue says he supports equality for everyone, yet his party does not. Some even claim (suffering from delusions, no doubt) that Republicans are assisting in the advance of LGBT rights and same sex marriage.  Other than Republican appointed judges who have ruled in favor of gay rights and/or marriage equality, however, the examples of pro-gay Republicans are largely non-existent.  And let's not forget that it has been the GOP behind the state level "turn away the gays" bills or that the GOP 2012 platform on social issues was co-authored by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, a designated anti-gay hate group.  A piece in Salon tears apart this myth of GOP friendliness to gays and our lives.  Here are excerpts:
In a recent piece in the Atlantic, reporter Molly Ball largely credits Republicans for the progress in the fight for marriage equality. She points to recent events involving Republicans that prove that the GOP is actually a hospitable place for the LGBT community and the progress it seeks.

I will not be the first, but let me be the latest, to reply: no, it is not.

Because of actions by judges appointed by Republican presidents, Ball assumes this signals a shift in party thinking.
Republicans are playing a role in the changing landscape of same-sex marriage. While it is certainly true that some within the party and within the conservative movement are, in fact, changing their minds, Republicans are not by any stretch of the imagination driving the improving legal and social positions for the LGBT community in the United States. Not by a long shot. And scientific, empirical political science research confirms it. I’ve just finished writing a book on the topic (co-authored with Dr. Melissa Michelson) that examines support for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage among different identity groups.

A few glaring facts are treated as ephemeral aberrations in Ball’s piece: only three Republican U.S. senators support marriage equality. That’s right, three. Out of 45 current Republican U.S. senators. There are currently 184 current members of the U.S. House of Representatives on record in support of marriage equality. Of them, 182 are Democrats. That’s 98.9 percent. There are 17 current governors who have announced their support for marriage equality. All 17 are Democrats. And those Republican elected officials who recently declined to oppose marriage equality cited in Ball’s piece? Let’s review some background from these so-called Republican “drivers of momentum.”

For example, Gov. Chris Christie remains staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage. He vetoed a bill approved by the New Jersey Legislature in 2012 to legalize the practice. When a trial-level judge ruled in October 2013 that the state must allow same-sex couples to wed, Christie appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court. He finally decided to abandon his appeals because the state “would have little chance of overturning them,” not because his issue preferences changed.

Gov. Brian Sandoval came to a similar conclusion when Nevada’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was struck down, responding, “Based upon the advice of the attorney general’s office and their interpretation of relevant case law, it has become clear that this case is no longer defensible in court.” Not exactly a glowing endorsement of the freedom to marry.

[I]n a letter to the Republican Party, social conservative leaders like Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Phyllis Schlafly suggested that Republicans should hold steadfast in their opposition to marriage equality, instead focusing on how to better articulate those positions of opposition to avoid high-profile Republican gaffes. Just four days later, and just prior to the Supreme Court’s rulings in Perry and Windsor, the Republican National Committee passed resolutions affirming the party’s opposition to marriage equality, . . .

For our book, we conducted two randomized experiments to test the effect of partisan identity on support for marriage equality. . . . . Republicans were staunchly opposed to marriage equality regardless of what they read, with only 17 percent support (Democratic support paragraph) and 19 percent support (Republican support paragraph). In New Jersey, running a similar study, we found that Republicans overwhelmingly disapproved of marriage equality.

The poll also finds that among the roughly 50 percent of Republicans who believe that people are born gay, 64 percent support same-sex marriage, 61 percent say the Constitution provides the right to such unions and 70 percent favor allowing gay and lesbian individuals to adopt (Craighill & Clement 2014). In other words, while Republicans and conservatives are generally slower to change their opinion, there seems to be a non-trivial number of Republicans who are either supportive of marriage equality or are at least open to considering the issue.

To claim they are “driving the momentum” is another argument entirely. One that isn’t valid.
For the time being, if one is LGBT, supporting the GOP continues to be against one's own best interest unless greed and a desire for lower taxes is all that matters to you.  In every other respect, the GOP continues to want to treat us as less than full citizens and in some instances less than fully human.  The myth makers are simply lying if they claim otherwise. 
 

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