Republican 11th Commandment: Thou shalt diss gays/ a Santorum flashback

[Cannikin]

I dug this up from last April. Just a year ago, all we had to worry about were the poisonous words of a few republicans...

http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/888/888_santorum.asp

The Republican rag
In the light of Senator Santorum’s remarks equating homosexuality with bigamy and incest, it seems clear that the 11th Commandment of the Republican Party remains: Thou shalt diss gays.

But for the rest of us gays, he’s taken a wrong political turn at the intersection of Queer Street and Homophobia Boulevard, where nobody is going to pick him up. I don’t even think Jesse Helms himself would have made such a costly political blunder. (Little did we know)

Certainly, gay rights initiatives have been completely stymied since September 11, 2001, and they are not currently part of the language of either Republican or Democratic political landscape. But the way Santorum lumps things together into immoral soup speaks to an undeniable political ineptitude in this era of media exactness.

At the 2000 Republican convention, held in Philadelphia, I attended a “gay-friendly” shindig hosted by the gay group Log Cabin Republicans. As the only visible Democrat at that event, I was told by the local Log Cabin president, David Greer, that gays would be welcome among “the top echelon” of the party, which would include George W. Bush (whose official response to Santorum has been to decline to comment—a tacit endorsement). At the same time the gay party faithful were congratulating themselves on breaking the pink barrier within the Republican Party in 2000, down the street on the convention floor the Republicans were cleansing the party platform of any language that would be inclusive of gay rights issues, legalities, or concerns.

Santorum’s remarks are a reminder that Republican homophobia is alive and well and thriving in Washington.