October 04, 2004
Gay Man's Election Concerns
So I ran across Kerry's gay conundrum by Chris Bull. I was actually kinda annoyed by the thing.
Okay, so Kerry has a great pro-gay, stance in so many ways. But, he doesn't support gay marriage (he only calls for civil unions) and he hasn't made gay rights a direct stump issue.
My take? Who cares? Any reasonable gay man would take just about any other politician other than George W. Bush.
But let's step back from that and work a quick hypothetical: I'm the same in every conceivable way, except that I'm heterosexual. I'd still want Bush out of office. Surprisingly some of my straight friends seem to actually want Bush out for his anti-gay stance more than I want him out for his anti-gay stance.
GWB provides a great figurehead to direct anger towards. I once was saw Moisés Kaufman speak. He stated that Pastor Fred Phelps was important because he brought some of the implicit hatred for gays to the surface and displayed it for what it was. While I won't give GWB as much credit as Phelps, GWB does the same thing.
Any self respecting Gay or Lesbian voter need not look any further than GWB's mouth to know why they should vote for Kerry. Hell, even the Kerry campaign knows this: "Indeed, Kerry strategists clearly believe that Bush's anti-gay record will drive gay voters into their camp and keep them there." Oh and don't go pulling that I'll vote for Nader crap. In a safe election, I might support you on that. But in this election, I respectfully defer the argument to my elders.