IGF CultureWatch

As I’ve said before, it makes sense. If they failed to do so, albeit with well-stated qualifications, they would have been frozen out with no access, as happened when the group’s former leadership failed to endorse George W. Bush’s re-election. Being in the room when the platform is debated, for instance, didn’t win the day this year, but over time it will. This is a long-term strategy that, if we’re serious, we need to support.

LGBT Democratic party operatives will have a field day, of course, but their goal has never been moving the GOP forward—quite the opposite. The more virulently anti-gay the Republican party remains, the better for their party. But their braying should not dissuade efforts to work within the GOP, particularly for those who wonder if, after four more years of Obama, there will be much left of the once-prosperous and dynamic U.S. economy for Chris Christie to salvage.

Second Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, a long-time favorite of the conservative Federalist Society, strikes down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

He’s yet another conservative, Republican appointed judge striking a blow for gay rights and legal equality.

The next round will be in the U.S. Supreme Court, where Reagan-appointee Justice Anthony Kennedy is likely to provide the majority vote that ensures the federal government doesn’t treat same-sex couples as second-class citizens.

updated 10/20/12

As of middish October, the presidential and Senate-majority races remain too close to call, although there is wide consensus that the House should remain in GOP hands. If Obama wins and the Democrats retain the Senate, little will change with regard to LGBT issues—there will be supportive rhetoric, including advocacy for the repeal of the section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) barring the federal government from extending benefits to same-sex couples—and perhaps some additional federal agency-controlled policies will be made friendlier to same-sex couples.

What if Romney wins and the GOP takes the Senate? The White House will voice its opposition to the Supreme Court overturning any part of DOMA, and federal agencies might seek some retrenchment on their policies that were helpful to gay couples. But Romney has indicated he won’t overturn the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on openly gay servicememebers. And so the fight for gay legal equality will focus on federal and state courts, and state legislatures.

But there is reason to expect that the GOP will continue a slow evolution on gay issues, evidenced by the fact that opposition to same-sex marriage, while in the GOP party platform, has not been a rallying cry of the Romney campaign, as Politico noted in GOP steers clear of gay marriage issue.

And, as the Cato Institute’s David Boaz points out, there is increasing evidence that opposition to marriage equality isn’t going to be a winning issue for Republicans going forward. Recent polls shows that majorities of voters in red/blue swing states now say they back gay marriage, of which Boaz comments, “No wonder Romney isn’t talking about it.”

Like the Canadian and British conservative parties, eventually the GOP will recognize it can distinguish itself ideologically as the party that’s more fiscally conservative and pro-free-enterprise / economic growth, while maintaining opposition to the Democratic party’s support for taxpayer-funded abortion on demand up to delivery and the forcing of religiously affiliated employers to provide free contraceptives and abortifacient drugs to their female employees (i.e., the Democrats’ “war on women” big lie), while supporting marriage for all couples on traditionally conservative grounds (as the leadership of the British Conservative party is doing), or, initially at least, pull back and not take a strong position (as the Canadian Conservative party appears to be doing).

Of course, national and local LGBT lobbies refusing to endorse, or actively working to defeat, GOP candidates who would take the party in this direction isn’t helping (but then, it isn’t meant to).

More. Examples of the above: GOP House candidates Richard Tisei in Massachusetts and Nan Hayworth in New York, and Senate candidates Scott Brown in Massachusetts (who is being vigorously opposed by the once-nonpartisan Human Rights Campaign) and Linda McMahon in Connecticut.

Furthermore. Yes, I should also have mentioned Romney’s support for the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment—the position most likely to keep many gay Republicans from backing him. It’s indefensible, and a pullback from John McCain, even if he’s unlikely to push it (for reasons indicated above, plus his silence about it since securing the nomination). Moreover, even if the GOP takes control of the Senate, it would be far from having the necessary two-thirds majority to send such an amendment to the states. I’m not defending Romney, but these are facts as well.

Debate Update. Gay issues remain absent from the presidential debates, but the Washington Blade takes note that:

Mitt Romney brought up his belief in marriage as a means to reduce the culture of violence in response to a question about banning assault weapons, saying “we need moms and dads helping raise kids” and espousing “the benefit of having two parents in the home.” …

Romney never explicitly said he was excluding opposite-sex couples when touting the importance of a “two-parent family” as the correct way to raise children, but didn’t take the opportunity to say that marriage should be between one man, one woman.

More still. Paul Ryan says that reinstating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would be “a step in the wrong direction” and that “this issue is past us.”

Comments blogger and attorney Doug Mataconis, “Now that we’ve lived with repeal for a year, and it’s clear that, as predicted, there are no adverse consequences to letting gays and lesbians serve openly…the GOP wants to put this issue behind them and move on. Eventually, I predict, they’ll be doing the same thing with regard to same-sex marriage.”

It’s worth recalling that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is the unsung heroine of DADT repeal, exposing and confronting Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as he was quietly sabotaging the repeal effort.

updated 10/20/12

Gallaudet University, the premier institution of higher learning for the deaf, has put its chief diversity officer on leave for signing an anti-gay marriage petition—a move that was quickly met with criticism.

School President T. Alan Hurwitz announced the decision to place Angela McCaskill, the school’s chief diversity officer (and a deaf African-American woman), on paid leave.

Apparently, “diversity” and “inclusiveness” do not extend to scriptural literalists!

I think it was bad policy to put McCaskill on leave, playing into the hands of the anti-gay Family Research Council and others who claim that legal recognition of same-sex marriage will curtail the civil rights of those who oppose marriage equality on religious grounds.

More pertinent is the whole issue of diversity educrats. Institutions of higher learning have been cutting back on academic departments while expanding their diversity staffs. Worse, these diversity initiatives often encourage minorities and women to view themselves as victims entitled to special privileges – as documented superbly by Bruce Bawer in his recent book The Victims Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind. You can sample the front pages at Amazon.

More. While opponents of marriage equality take advantage of McCaskill’s suspension, she says she remains neutral on the gay marriage ballot referendum, and that her decision to sign the petition to place the marriage question on the ballot was based on her strong belief that all controversial issues should be put before voters in Maryland. Would she feel the same way about a referendum on mixed-race marriage? On the other hand, should that matter?

In Connecticut’s close U.S. Senate race between Republican former WWE CEO Linda McMahon and Democrat U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, AP reports that:

[Murphy accused McMahon] of not being a strong supporter of women’s rights, such as the right to have an abortion. McMahon reiterated Sunday that she does support abortion rights, but that she believed a proposed amendment to the federal health care reform overhaul that required all employers to cover the cost of contraception was overreaching.

McMahon also stated Sunday that she supports gay marriage, which is legal in Connecticut, and would vote to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union between a man and woman for federal purposes. It marked a change in position for McMahon, the Republicans’ 2010 Senate candidate, whose support for repealing DOMA had been questioned by gay rights activists in the past.

“I have changed my position on DOMA because with now gay marriage approved in the state of Connecticut, I don’t think it’s fair,” McMahon told reporters after the debate, adding how those married gay couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples for federal benefits. McMahon said her opinion on DOMA has been evolving.

Murphy seized on McMahon’s comments, saying he was only candidate who has consistently supported gay rights.

Either we want the Republicans to “evolve” on gay issues, or we don’t because it’s better for the Democrats if they stay benighted.

1) I can remember when the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT PAC, only endorsed congressional candidates and did so on a bipartisan basis. But since they’ve been making splashy, well-funded endorsements of the Democratic presidential nominee, they’ve lost virtually all clout among Repuboicans. How useful is it for a GOP congressional nominee to win the endorsement from a PAC so closely joined at the hip to the national Democratic party—it’s a negative to be avoided, branding any GOP candidate as a Republican in name only.

2) New York Congresswoman Nan Hayworth is one of the best GOP House members on gay issues, so of course LGBT Democrats are going all out to defeat her.

3) Sadly, but predictably, the Democrats’ racial demagoguery against voter ID laws is now being extended to claim that such reasonable measures to deter fraud are “voter suppression efforts” that negatively impact the transgendered (well, yes, if they’re not registered and/or entitled to vote!).

Some at the Washington Blade are upset that Ted Olson, one of the lead attorneys in the bipartisan-led legal fight to overturn California’s anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8, actually is a Republicans who is supporting Mitt Romney.

In this report, “Prop 8 attorney helping Romney campaign with debate prep,” and a related op-ed. “Two-Faced Ted Olson Should Be Shunned,” some LGBT Democrats accuse Olson of being a “hypocrite” for backing Romney despite his strong disagreement with the GOP nominee over gay marriage. But if Olson supported Obama, who he no doubt strongly disagrees with regarding the Democrat’s exponential expansion of the deficit-exploding redistributionist regulatory state, would he be no less of a hypocrite?

More to the point, the Democratic activists don’t get that having Ted Olson spend quality time upfront with Romney, who knows Olson is a leading pro-gay-marriage advocate, at least presents an opportunity to try to engage Romney on the matter at the highest level—not that it would change his stated position right now, but possibly it could have some impact down the road, should Romney win.But too often, progressives’ idea of engagement with the opposition is to chant “Bigot, bigot, go away.” Which has never changed anyone’s mind, and really is not meant to. It’s feel-good activism based on the premise that all we really need is the one true party.

Canada’s Conservative Party has evolved significantly on gay issues, reports the National Post:

A mere seven years ago, the Tories were famously the opponents of same sex marriage. Now, the Harper Conservatives freely push gay rights abroad and even host an annual gathering of gay Tories. …

“It’s no secret that the Conservative Party hasn’t always been the biggest champion of gay rights, but public pressure, and quite frankly, society evolving has changed their views,” said Jamie Ellerton, an openly gay former staffer [for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney].

“The Conservative Party, like the rest of society, has moved to be more supportive of gay rights in recent years, and I see that trend continuing,” he said.

On gay marriage, the Conservative Party has moved from outright opposition to something akin to no position (leaving it to the provinces)—not as advanced as Britain’s Tories, but far ahead of where they were, and where today’s Republican Party remains. But this is clearly what the future portends, even for U.S. conservatives, in time.

It’s worth noting, as well, that Canadian conservatives have not become more statist or otherwise like the redistributionist, regulatory left; in fact, as they’ve become more supportive of gay legal equality, they’ve also become more committed to reducing government and advancing economic freedom, positions the party (like U.S. Republicans) did not always adhere to.

The Washington Blade looks at Barney Frank’s denigrating the Log Cabin Republicans as “Uncle Toms.” Frank is right that on gay issues alone, the Democrats are better—not as ideal as he pretends, but certainly better.

However, LCR head R. Clarke Cooper is also right when he responds, “Frank calls us ‘Uncle Toms’ and pretends that Log Cabin hasn’t been on the front lines of the fight for equality. The truth is, by speaking conservative to conservatives about gay rights, Log Cabin Republicans are doing some of the hardest work in the movement, work that liberals like Barney are unwilling to do and couldn’t do if they tried.”

More to the point, Frank’s nasty little slur is all too typical of the smug mean-spiritedness of so many self-styled big government “progressives.”

In contrast, Ellen DeGeneres has a cordial conversation with Clint Eastwood, who talks about libertarian values—fiscal responsibility and government staying out of your life. That’s the ideal that neither party embraces, but in this election Eastwood (via his convention endorsement of Romney) believes Republicans are better enough in comparison with Obama’s out-of-control on spending, exponentially expanding regulatory state.

More. From Box Turtle Bulletin: “Barney Frank is the worst kind of politician, a partisan hack. … [N]ow that his career is ending, it seems that he has taken on a new role: throwing a wrench into any possible bipartisan movement that can be achieved on gay rights.

George Will reflects on the case of a New Mexico commercial photographer being sued for refusing, on religious grounds, to accept a gig photographing a same-sex commitment ceremony. Says Will of Vanessa Willock, the lesbian brining the suit:

Willock could then have said regarding Elane Photography what many same-sex couples have long hoped a tolerant society would say regarding them — “live and let live.” Willock could have hired a photographer with no objections to such events. Instead, Willock and her partner set out to break the Huguenins to the state’s saddle.

Concludes Will, “Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks.”

Those of an activist-statist bent, who see government power and coercion as the road to the great new dawn, will not be appeased. Like the mayors who threatened Chick-fil-A with persecutory implementation of zoning laws over its chief executive’s opposition to same-sex marriage, cases like this are a detriment to our advance toward equality under the law.