For GOP, Gay Rights Issues Play Role That Race Once Did

There is a lot of truth in this Boston Globe column (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/09/11/for_gop_gay_rights_issues_play_role_that_race_once_did/). Gays are the new Blacks for the GOP tactics of using a bogey man to drive out the far right vote. Instead of black rapist Willie Horton and "welfare queens," the GOP likes to use gays and transgendered as the threat to conservative Potestant whites. To me the demonization of any group of law abiding, tax paying citizens is rerehensible, which is why I am no longer a member of the GOP. Here are some portions of the column:

WASHINGTON - Republican leaders' swift condemnation of Idaho Senator Larry Craig, leading to his decision to resign after having been caught in a men's room sex sting, demonstrated more than the party's concern about scandals. It also revealed the delicate balance the GOP strikes in dealing with homosexuality and how closely it parallels past GOP positions on race.

Opposition to gay marriage, along with other forms of gay rights that emphasize the equality of gay and straight relationships, is a key point of connection between Republicans and voters who might otherwise oppose the GOP agenda. In recent years, gay issues have functioned to help build a Republican coalition in a way similar to the role once played by race issues. In the '70s, '80s, and '90s, the national GOP came out strongly against programs to create special opportunities for racial minorities, thereby gaining substantial support among white social conservatives.

Democrats often charged that the Republicans' opposition to busing for school desegregation and affirmative action hiring plans was a code for much deeper resistance to minority advancement. Democrats saw it as a way for Republicans to signal to voters who opposed voting rights and desegregation that Republicans wouldn't pursue those goals very aggressively.

There have been no shows of support for gays as the party now uses its opposition to some forms of gay rights as a key bridge to social conservatives. And, in much the same way as they did in past decades on racial issues, many Republican leaders are trying to separate their opposition to programs that promote gay equality from discrimination against homosexuals.

I continue to find it strange that blacks who get co-opted by the GOP and white conservatives are getting in bed with the same people who worked to deny equal rights to blacks.