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Category Archives: gay rights

Yay Republicans. -.-

So today I was once again reminded why I don’t consider my self even a moderate republican despite the fact that I hold a lot of conservative views. The RPT held a session recently on who could have a booth and who couldn’t. The log Cabin Republicans (the homosexual republican sub group if you don’t know) petitioned for a booth again this year. It was brought up for discussion. Instead of listening to this guy:

The party instead sided with this:

Which, given all the jokes about liberals needing a safe space…I mean really? This is what I think of as “loving hate” and it’s not healthy. It show’s the actual hurtful face in my opinion because it’s the one that pretends to care but is clearly here to hurt a group of people subversively. At least with people like Matt Rinaldi I openly know where he stands and it’s adamantly against me, which gives me a place to start.

“Now Bobby,” you say, “We don’t ALL feel that way.” and that’s true. So I listened to more of the debate and then we came to this bit.

So I think it was quite clear that not allowing them to speak in the debate about them getting a booth is definitely not open minded. This IS what people like me see when this debate comes up. Thankfully the gentleman was there for the debate was well able to handle it and summed up my opinion on the debate well:

And he was right. It’s clearly what was said. Don’t beleive me? Let’s hear the vote!

I know people make the Reagan quote argument of “Bobby, you should join us because, as Reagan says, ‘The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor.'” But I’m sorry that vote quite clearly says that being gay is 80% of what you think a conservative gay man would be. I mean if you won’t even take the gay people who hold ALL of your tenants except for being gay, what the hell would I do there? Because I don’t believe in everything on the RPT site. Far from it.

So the thing that gets me. Is R.A.M.P. gets a booth there. Which is against tenant 164. What is RAMP you say? Well that would be the Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition. So what the Republican Party of Texas just said is that drugs are less of an issue than gay people are. Congratulations.

And that my friends is why I’ll not be a Republican.

Finally, my thoughts on the chic-fil-a mess.

I generally avoid political talk unless it’s light banter.

Today I’ve been reading up on a lot of my facebook and lj friends and I’ve found that I’m actually deeply hurt and saddened by what has gone on.

First, Chic-Fil-A has every right to say what they want just as I have every right to not purchase their product.  Which at this point I have no intention of.

If you’ve known me very long at all you know that I have a tendency to adamantly support people’s freedom to exercise their religion.  I’ll back you 100% up to the point that you start to butt up against someone else’s freedom to exercise their beliefs.  In those cases I always suggest you both smile, look the other way and go about your business.  This will work for 99% of all religious conflicts you’re likely to encounter in America as long as everyone allows everyone else their own private beliefs.

While I like that they have that freedom and that both pro and anti-gay advocates all have the freedom to express their views, I am hurt by several people and what they’ve had to say to me directly.  They’ve told me that *I* was persecuting them and their beliefs because I want to marry Chris.  My marriage would be between him and me and no one else.  The worst it will ever do to any of you I know would be that you get an invitation to an event that I’ve long wanted have and to have my government recognize it.  If anything by lobbying your congress to prevent me from doing something that has no real affect on you, it should be me who feels persecuted.   Sadly, being open and out about loving a man for so many years, this week, this action and appearance of outright vitriol from some people I considered colleagues and friends.  For the first time I actually feel like I know true hatred.  I’ve felt that hopeless pang that people want to hate me for something that doesn’t involve them.  It’s hard for me to understand.

As a lot of you may or may not know, I have a very fluid belief system when it comes to religion.  I’ve read the bible, parts of the Qu’ran, parts of the Torah, the gnostic scriptures, the writings of the Dalai Lama, even some books on paganism and I’ve found truths that I like in all of them and things I didn’t.  I feel this has helped me find a path in my life that allows for relative happiness and the ability to support others in their quest for finding their path or lack of path in the case of some people who choose no faith.

I know I’m not a particularly nice person sometimes.  I know I’m not the best person or even right as much as I’d like.  But I try to be good and I try to respect your beliefs as I’d wish you’d support me in mine.  You know that I’m not particularly flamboyant, but I have no shame in loving Chris.  You know that I try to help  you where I can in both your personal and professional careers.

So I want to know from those of you who know me and have openly said such things to me this week.  Setting aside the bible thumping because there are people who do that, settings aside whether you feel chic-fil-a got a beat down on their rights.  Just looking at the interactions you and I have had, what have *I* ever directly done to you that makes you want to actively seek out and rip one of my life’s goals away from me?