Focus On the Positive: Election 2008 and the Gay Vote

From the Log Cabin Republicans:

"Exit polls show Sen. John McCain received at least 1.3 million votes from gay and lesbian Americans—more than any other Republican Presidential candidate has ever received. He garnered 27% of the LGBT vote, an increase from 19% support for President Bush four years ago."

This does not surprise me, since John McCain was the most gay-friendly GOP candidate ever to run for the presidency. Even though McCain lost the election, I felt so blessed to connect with so many other gay men across the nation (mainly young, bright and ambitious like myself) who were also proud McCain supporters, scoffing at the idea, espoused by so many other gay men without batting an eye, that they are automatically obligated to vote Democrat because of their sexual orientation. Many of us work just as hard for our money as everyone else, and are thus just as horrified at the thought of the government taking even more of that hard-earned money that it already does, and "redistributing" it to people who have done absolutely nothing to deserve yet another free handout at taxpayer expense. We were also impressed with McCain's pledge to take a hard-line stance toward the Islamofacist regime in Iran, a regime which publicly executes teenagers as young as 15 who are caught in "homosexual acts." And of course, not that gay issues should have been at the top of anyone's agenda with all of the other things going on, but Obama publicly proclaimed his opposition to same-sex marriage just as loudly as McCain (as well as every other Republican AND Democrat to ever run for president).

I lived in Arizona when then Tempe mayor Neil Guiliano (currently President of GLAAD) came out as a gay man, and Senator McCain was the first one to tell the attack dogs from the religious right to back off and that the mayor's sexual orientation "didn't make a damn bit of difference." He gave a lengthy interview to the Washington Blade, while Barack Obama on multiple occasions refused an interview with a major gay magazine in Philadelphia. Let's also not forget that on two separate occasions, Obama refused to have his picture taken with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who isn't even gay, simply because of Newsom's support for same-sex marriage.

The weekend before the election was Gay Pride Weekend here in Palm Springs. When I attended the festival on Sunday, countless gay men were prancing around proudly while sporting their Obama campaign stickers. Some of the stickers in fact, were even rainbow-colored . . . *GAG*

I couldn't help but shake my head and think to myself, "If they only knew . . . "

However, the encouraging thing is that just over one out of every four gay and lesbian voters DID know, and it's great to see people in our community who refused to be intimidated by the renegade gay activists into allowing their sexual orientation to do their thinking and voting for them.