Andrew Sullivan's Sunday Washington Post op-ed, "The
GOP Divide On Gay Marriage," makes some of the points we've
been noting (see
Discord on the Right) about how the debate over banning gay
marriage is dividing conservatives while uniting liberals -- the
opposite of what some conservative strategists (and Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist) had expected. Warns Sullivan:
If the president were to endorse the [anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment], the Republican splits would widen. It would make the position of gay Republicans essentially untenable, and Bush would lose almost all the million gay votes he won in 2000. The Republican Unity Coalition, founded to make sexual orientation a non-issue in the GOP, would fold. The Log Cabin Republicans would refuse to endorse the president. And such a position would be an enormous gift to the Democrats, as gay money, enthusiasm and anger rallied behind their candidate. The amendment would do to the gay community what Proposition 187 did to Latinos in California: alienate them from the GOP for a generation. And it would send a signal to other minorities: The Republicans, at heart, are the party of exclusion, not inclusion.
The Real Reagan.
Columnist Deroy Murdock provides some needed perspective on Ronald Reagan's real AIDS record and views about gays. One mistruth often repeated, that Reagan didn't even mention AIDS until 1987, is firmly put to rest. Another positive sign -- this piece is from the conservative National Review, which apparently feels it's necessary to defend Reagan against "anti-gay" allegations.
Time Warp.
A 7-year-old boy in rural Lafayette, Louisiana, was disciplined
by his public school for telling a friend he has two mothers who
are gay. It must have come as a shock to the school that the
incident triggered national coverage, as in this frontpage
Washington Post article, as well as an ACLU lawsuit. Yes, the
times are changing -- even in places that time seems to have
forgotten.
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