Saturday, April 18, 2015

Conservative Inclusiveness and Log Cabin Republicans

Don't misunderstand me.  With the possible exception of a staff development workshop with rolls of butcher paper, I can't think of anything more horrible than attending the Western Conservative Summit at the campus of The Colorado Christian University.  For the life of me, I can't understand why Log Cabin Republicans would want to attend.  I can't understand why they would want to be Republicans.  I can't understand why anyone would willingly be associated with Republicans.  Furthermore, I think it's great that the Summit has disinvited its LGBT faithful.  Anything that exposes that party for the tone-deaf collection of white male paranoid reactionaries they are is okay by me.

And I really don't understand John Andrews' defense of the disinvitation in today's Post.  He starts our by comparing the Log Cabin Republicans to Holocaust deniers!  The media wouldn't freak out if a Jewish festival barred Holocaust deniers a booth on the convention floor, he asserts.  Similarly, no one would blame a Planned Parenthood seminar for excluding anti-abortion protesters from displaying photos of aborted fetuses in the seminar room.  Catholics would be justified, he suggests, in refusing to give a place on the dais of some mid-western Catholic conference to those who claim the Pope is the Anti-Christ.

Why does no one complain about those scenarios, he asks?  Because "the American way is freedom, fairness, tolerance as a two-way street.  The American way is live and let live."  Hey, so far so good.  It is hard to argue with his point.  But then in the very next sentence he says, "Private organizations, whether religious or secular, get to choose their partners and presenters in keeping with the organization's core values."  See, I'm confused again.  Andrews clearly states that to "live and let live" is the "coriest" of core values.  "Live and let live" is obviously a core value for Andrews and all the folks at CCU when it comes to their own life choices; if folks disagree with those choices, they are free to live AS LONG AS THEY KEEP THEIR LIFE TO THEMSELVES.

Mr. Andrews, you are a former president of the State Senate.  You are a high ranking official in a local university.  Do you really not see the fundamental difference between your examples and gay Republicans?  Your examples--Holocaust deniers, Pope bashers, aborted fetus wielders--are actively promoting a position designed to bring down their supposed hosts.  They are violating that fundamental American principal of "live and let live."  They shoot doctors in front of abortion clinics.  They taunt unwed mothers on their way to family planning.  They actively choose to ignore all the evidence and persist in their delusional demands.

Is that what gay Republicans do?  Is that what anyone in the LGBT community does?  I'm not familiar with Log Cabin Republicans or their tactics, but unless they plan on showing up at CCU wearing capris, and skin tight tank tops while singing "YMCA", I don't see how they are doing anything other than living and letting others live.  Is the LGBT community trying to put an end to heterosexual marriage?  Are they trying to pass legislation designed to cure straight people?  It seems to me all they are trying to do is be a part of what has become a nationally recognized summit that in fact has a big impact on the Republican presidential nominee.

I'm sorry Mr. Andrews, but your analogies just don't hold up to scrutiny.

At the end of his article he encourages Log Cabin Republicans, he encourages all Republicans who don't belong to the core group of middle-aged, angry, white guys, to come on down to the summit.  "Everyone's welcome at the Summit," he says.  "See you there."

Just keep who and what you are to yourselves.