Beth Elliott recently wrote a wonderfully provocative column for FrontPageMag.Com about lesbian and gay men supporting George W. Bush for president. Exit polls showed that 25 percent of voters who identified themselves as gay or lesbian voted for Bush.
The libertarian Elliott doesn’t find that result as odd at all. She writes,
One obvious explanation, one that runs counter to the assumptions of both left and right, is that many of us place higher importance on issues like the benefits of constitutional government over statism, or America’s safety in the world, or restoring honor and dignity to our highest institutions, than our particular parochial issues.
Moreover, Elliott contends that gay and lesbian activists need to be more consistent in the way they approach the state,
Ultimately, there is also the matter of following through on positions and applying them not just to ourselves but to others as well. Because we have decried government interference in our lives, and the harmful effects of derogatory stereotypes, it behooves us to be sensitive to similar legitimate complaints from religious conservatives.
Of course Elliott realizes there probably isn’t a lot of room for common ground with social conservatives who, in their own way, are every bit as statist as the Leftists Elliott deplores. Still, she writes, “Even an uneasy peace between conservatives and freedom-loving gay men and lesbians could tip the scales away from statism. We can certainly agree that would make our country a better and freer place for all of us.”
Source:
How gays and conservatives can work together. Beth Elliott, FrontPageMagazine.Com, February 12, 2001.