Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Right Wing and Gay

I personally don’t get it — how can you be a right-wing Republican and be gay — but hey, whatever spins your hat, right?

I’m talking about Sheriff Paul Babeu in Arizona, who over the weekend came out as a matter of defending himself against charges that he tried to extort his former boyfriend from Mexico over his immigration status. He didn’t shy away from the gay aspect of the story, and so far it hasn’t stopped him from running for Congress.

He also supports same-sex marriage, giving it the small-government meme that a lot of us on the progressive side have used, and he supports openly gay people serving in the military, albeit a moot point.

I don’t think that one openly gay Republican is going to change the dynamics of the GOP in Arizona, and if the Santorum campaign is any guide, I don’t think it’s going to change the party on a national level. And if he was running in my district, I’d vote against him. But I do have a lot of respect for him for running headlong into the anti-gay hate machine of the Republican party.