FormerShark saidrkyjockdn said
It's far easier to come out as gay to a conservative than as conservative to many gays. The conservative may not approve, but he's unlikely to make your life a living hell, to guilt trip you, and isolate you as your former gay friends will do.
The whining just never stops with you.
A recent poll showed that 76% of LGBT voters are for Biden, and only 17%, or one in six, are for Trump (although for some reason the numbers are reversed on RJ). Did you ever stop to think why that might be? Are the 76% all brainwashed against Republicans and Trump or could there be more substantial reasons here?
I doubt you'll answer this, probably mostly because you dislike me a lot, but I would genuinely like to hear your thoughts.
I'm just commenting on the way things are, not feeling sorry for myself or for other gay conservatives. My quality of life and that of my friends is actually quite satisfying, politics being a small part of what we focus on.
To address your question: Historically, the Republican party has been heavily influenced by the conservative Christian movement that was extremely anti-gay. In the 1970's, friends and I showed up at a Denver event to protest an Anita Bryant event as she had organized an anti-gay "Save Our Children" campaign. Others such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell also aligned with the Republican party and were rabidly homophobic. With the flood of anti-gay vitriol and the resulting legislation from the right, it's small wonder that out gays started aligning with and working for the Democrats. No gay person I know aligned with the Republican party -- it was just too toxic.
With the advent of AIDS and the resulting sickness and death of many gay men, families, including conservative families began to discover how many many of their friends and family members were gay. After the initial fears of contagion and the discovery that it was not transmitted through casual contact, attitudes began to change. A real sea change came after the disclosure that Rock Hudson had AIDS.
Three decades of visibility have profoundly changed social views of homosexuality. Gay people, particularly in urban areas, can live comfortably without much fear of discrimination or intolerance by their heterosexual peers. Even in rural areas, there's increasing tolerance. Eyebrows may be raised about the two gay farmers or lady couple that just moved to the place down the road, but outright violence and harassment is much more rare -- the exception rather than the rule anymore.
However, the perception of widespread discrimination, of hatred, of violence still exists among gay people, and where it doesn't exist, we sometimes end up manufacturing it. For example, see the Jussie Smollett hoax and how Hollywood and the media bought into it. Yes, it still exists, but not to the degree that it once did -- and where it exists, the way it's expressed is more subtle, less violent and toxic.
It's in this environment that gay came to age, and the perceptions formed in the past 30 years still exist. We still think of conservatives and Christians as the bigots that we faced in the 1980s and 1990s. And if we live in a large urban area that's predominately liberal, chances are that we don't know anyone who's conservative. New Yorker writer Pauline Kael reflected this sort of isolation when commenting on Nixon's landslide election: ""I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon." There's intense social pressure within gay culture to conform. Observe the dress codes, the "body-nazi" culture, hair styles, etc. It also applies to politics, news sources, movies, books, and music. With such conformist culture, small wonder that most gay people toe the liberal Democrat party line and that exit polling has been in the high 70's.
So how does a gay person become conservative? For me, it started with the realization that politics wasn't just about my sexuality. There were other things in the world that were important. Things such as national security, overbearing taxation and regulation on small business, exportation of manufacturing out of the USA, lack of basic entry level jobs, decreasing standards of education, and an increasing contempt for our history and our basic freedoms. I registered as a Libertarian, no longer able to support the "D" party as I wanted no part of a still overly evangelical Republican party.
As the "R" party started shedding the bigotry of the religious right and the "D"s started a accelerating slide to the far left, I became disillusioned with the Libertarians and finally registered as a Republican, the party more matching my views. I still had (and have) issues with the party's policies toward sexual minorities. (see some of the planks that the southern contingent has attempt to place in the platform), but the Democrats have become toxic to a civilized society.
To wrap this up, 76% of LGBQT people are likely voting "D" because that's they believe in, and that's what they see as the right thing to do based on their view of what's in their best interest. The numbers, of course, are moving downward. It's based on quality of life issues -- we're subject to the same taxes, regulatory and quality of life issues as our straight neighbors. But even we and our straight neighbors will eventually get sick of seeing our neighborhoods burn and our ability to speak freely about controversial issues limited.
So yes, I've thought about the issues. And thank you for asking the question in a respectful manner.
