A drumbeat comes through The Washington Post’s long article on Republicans and gays. The bigoted behavior’s there (gay outreach nixed by RNC members, stigma bills passed by state legislators), but it contrasts with a certain repetitive demureness on the part of the GOP presidential line-up. Nikki Haley: “Her campaign did not respond to a request to clarify her position on same-sex marriage.” Ron DeSantis: “The DeSantis campaign declined to clarify his current position on same-sex marriage.” Tim Scott: “His campaign did not respond to requests to clarify his position.” Donald Trump just isn’t into it: “His advisers said he is not motivated to overturn the legality of same-sex marriage, though he understands his political supporters feel strongly about the issue.”
The candidates who feel free to speak up are the ones saying hands off. Gay marriage is the way we do it now, so let’s move on—that would be the position of Chris Christie (“considers it legally settled”), Vivek Ramaswamy (“settled precedent”), and the devout but agile Mike Pence. The evangelical wound up alongside the race’s only Hindu and its only Blue State politician after some Nixon-goes-to-China remarks he made this spring. Man-woman marriage is God’s will, he said, “but we live in a pluralistic society, and the way we go forward, and the way we come together as a country united, I believe, is when we respect your right to believe and my right to believe what we believe.” As governor of Indiana, Pence signed a bill that said businesses could turn down clients for being gay, then signed a bill saying they couldn’t. In between he’d spent a week being pummeled by editorials and outraged corporate statements. That week pluralism breathed its spirit into him, and now and again it speaks when conditions dictate.
One theory: the GOP burnt its fingers stealing abortion rights and now it’s trying to be careful. Ralph Reed, a veteran Christ-oriented political operative, tells the Posthe’s as man-woman about marriage as ever, but he offers no protest over the issue’s nonpresence in the race. Swing voters and nervous corporate interests are obvious factors here, as in Pence’s mishap. But those factors weigh the most much later in a cycle. Right now is when candidates scrabble the hardest to win the party faithful, especially the nuts. Even so the candidates won’t go after gay marriage. That’s one bad burn they got from Dobbs; or possibly, for all the Republican voters who feel under siege because of queerness, there are more who respect gay marriage and want it intact. Either way civilization is making itself felt in some wild reaches of our society.
Meanwhile, there’s the ugly stuff. Oddly, the Post article doesn’t know how to play it. Reading the article in light of recent news, it would appear that Republican politicians are drawing on anti-trans hysteria while taking policy aim at anything that mixes, or allegedly mixes, queerness with kids. They’ve been doing a great deal along these lines from early this year, and the habit started a couple of years back. But the Postseems set to tell a more focused tale, one about Pride Month. “Republican Opposition to LGBTQ Rights Erupts in Backlash to Pride Month,” the headline says. The article: “During this year’s Pride Month, many prominent Republicans have expressed criticism of celebrations and in some cases resurfaced opposition to same-sex marriage.” No examples are given. All right, the Post called a Republican pollster and he said that “a plurality of voters” don’t want the Pride flag alongside the red, white, and blue. But otherwise the article tells us about pedo-baiting and trans-bashing, with nothing on Pride Month and whatever effect it might have.
At issue is whether Republican politicians feel ready to attack gays simply for being visible. Of the presidential contenders, DeSantis has stuck his toe in. A follower tweeted a clip , and a campaign account called DeSantis War Room gave it a retweet. A lot of the clip bashes trans, but the opening features Trump saying, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” That’s the heading under which the rest goes. As the clip figures things, when Trump implies that gays, etc., all deserve respect as American citizens, he brands himself the enemy of the right. The trans-bashing then fleshes out the clip’s accusation, with trans women presented as the worst side of queerness, the scariest part of an awful package. They’re exhibit A, but the charges are against the whole queer community.
DeSantis War Room gets it. “To wrap up ‘Pride Month,’ let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it,” the account said, right above the Trump clip. Christine Pushaw, a campaign official known for voicing DeSantis’ nastier thoughts, tweeted, “Opposing the federal recognition of ‘Pride Month’ isn’t ‘homophobic.’” More privately, a fund-raising message showed a photo of Joe Biden with the Pride flag. “When did we start accepting this as the norm?” it asked.
When last seen, the clip had less than 6500 likes for its retweet, which was undergoing a lot of hostile quote tweets. More poignantly, DeSantis War Room has about half the followers of the account that first posted the clip. DeSantis wants the right-wing troll community to know it has a big buddy in government, but he keeps coming off as its little buddy. If he’s the one candidate ready to go all-out anti-gay, the forces of decency can feel some relief. Also, gay marriage can’t be touched. The Republican Party has a lot of voters who don’t like gays (“political supporters feel strongly”), but even so gay marriage can’t be touched.
