GOP and Proud?

By Tanner Efinger

Gay Republican?! The thought exasperates even the more moderate of liberal thinkers. It’s like a screen door to a submarine or an ejector button on a helicopter! Or is it? Our political experts have cracked open a few history books and mapped the political landscape and we think something’s amiss. Perchance we’re playing the devil’s advocate, but we’ve got a sore spot for the plight of the underdog. So come out, come out, where ever you are, Mr. Gay Republican. Hear us out, because we think there’s more to your story.

Gay Republicans are the ugly ducklings of the LGBT community. They are chastised and driven back into their political closets, grappling against a loud and liberal base that sling accusations of self-loathing and challenge their identity. As the Republican Party has traditionally spent a great deal of its energy oppressing the LGBT community, perhaps this anti-gay Republican abuse is deserved. On the surface, it would seem that they’re chomping at the bit to vote away their own rights and equality. But beneath the surface, the idea of identifying as a gay Republican may just be a little more complicated than that…

Since the dawn of time (or more accurately since the creation of the “Grand Old Party” in 1854) Republicans and Democrats have been butting heads like a pair of bighorn sheep vying for a female in the throes of heat. The positions and the parties have each met with their fair share of transformation and these days it seems the divide is in particularly hot water. In the blue corner are the eat-the-rich, abortion-cheering, gay-marriage, “freethinking” liberals. In the red corner are the gun control, corporate kingdom, tax cutting, religious conservatives. And somewhere in between this squabbling duo is our poor, disfigured country, dangling like a beaten piñata.

But the world is changing and hope, perhaps, lies in a new era of global identity encouraged by young people who are forging a new political landscape. In the United States, the millennial generation will be the first ever to inherit a nation in decline and consequently are out of jobs, without health insurance, buried in debt and sick of partisan politics. As the world advances toward social acceptance (see gay marriage and black President) the Republican Party, in particular, is going through a major identity crisis, which leads the way for the proud emergence of the Gay Republican.

Read more at Instinct Magazine...