Have Gay Rights Become a Wedge Issue for Republicans?

For years, the GOP has exploited fear and ignorance of gay people and used it as a wedge issue to get out the vote.  This tactic reached it's zenith in 2004, but it never went away (see De Mint, Senator).  Now that public opinion has swung to our side and large majorities of Americans support legal recognition of our relationships, there are signs that the Republicans are trying to back away from their anti-gay past.  I don't mean to imply that the GOP will become gay-friendly anytime soon, but some are recognizing that anti-gay rhetoric has a shelf life that's about to expire.  Witness, for example, the 8 Republican Senators who voted for Don't Ask/Don't Tell repeal. 

The latest manifestation of this phenomenon is gay GOP group GOProud's participation in the upcoming CPAC conference as an official sponsor.  This is their second year sponsoring the confab and it's causing a riff in the conservative movement.  A number of conservative groups, including SPLC certified hate group The Family Research Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage, have drawn a "line in the sand" over GOProud and refuse to participate as long as those dirty fags this organization which does not share their conservative principles of family and faith are allowed to participate. Jonathan Rauch of the Independent Gay Forum has written an interesting piece on this growing rift on the right:

"Here’s the problem: conservatives’ hostility to homosexuality isolates them politically from the rest of the public, and the anti-gay consensus is fracturing even on the right (44 percent of Republicans say homosexuality should be accepted by society).


Translation: an issue which once divided and dispirited the Democratic coalition while uniting and energizing conservatives now cuts the other way. It’s a wedge issue against the right. Not just temporarily, either."

Read the rest here.

It's interesting that Maggie Gallagher's NOM has chosen to join this boycott.  She endlessly claims that NOM is not anti-gay, just pro-marriage.  Yet GOProud doesn't support marriage equality. They are gay Republicans who do not take a position on marriage other than the belief that it's a state issue.  Once again, NOM has revealed itself as purely anti-gay and not pro anything.