I love being gay i love being republican
Welcome to Political Outliers, a column that explores groups of Americans who are often portrayed as all voting the same way. In today’s climate, it’s easy to focus on how a group identifies politically,but that’s never the full story. Blocs of voters are rarely uniform in their beliefs, which is why this column will dive into undercovered parts of the electorate, showing how diverse and atypical most voters are.
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In a normal election year, Richard Leonardon, 60, would be supporting a Republican or independent political candidate. But during at least one race in his lifetime, Leonardon broke his habit.
It was 1996, when he was living in Pennsylvania’s 14th District, long represented by William Coyne, a Democrat. The Republican candidate, Bill Ravotti, didn’t really stand a chance of defeating Coyne, but Leonardon still couldn’t bring himself to vote for Ravotti. Instead, Leonardon wrote his own name on the ballot. That’s because, as a gay man, Leonardon found certain comments Ravotti made about gays and lesbians unsettling. Leonardon stressed that “someone does not have to be very
Have you heard of Frank Schubert? The Advocate wrote a scathing profile about him on Friday, referring to him as “the man who orchestrated the Prop. 8 win…the person who is most shaping the outcomes on behalf of the antigay side.” Schubert is the PR strategist behind the Prop 8 ads that employed scare tactics, threatening that a “no” vote would lead to kids teaching about gay marriage in schools (heaven forbid!), and he is the gentleman behind the wins for gay marriage opponents in Maine and North Carolina. He is the fresh political director for the charming National Organization for Marriage, and a several months ago he left Schubert Flint Public Affairs, the firm he created in 2003, to attention on conservative issues. But what struck me most about the Advocate’s op-ed was a small expression, a qualifying phrase tacked on after a hateful quote from Schubert, but an interesting factual nugget nonetheless. Schubert “happens to have a lesbian sister who is in a long-term relationship with two children.” Well then.
This is Frank Schubert via The Bilerico Project.
We’re no strangers to politicians in lofty places who have siblings in the GLB
They’re Here, They’re Queer, They’re… Republican?
Part I – Dean of the Gay Legislature
A year before election time in 2015, Todd Novak’s phone rang. It was Mark Pocan, a Congressman from Wisconsin’s 2nd district. Pocan asked Novak if he’d consider running for an open seat in the 51st assembly district, which is located in southwest Wisconsin, just west of Madison. Despite organism Mayor of a compact town called Dodgeville, Novak told Pocan he wasn’t interested. Privacy was key to him, and express politics is no place for a man who wants to keep his personal life personal.
A several days later, Novak got a knock on his office door. This day from Speaker of the Wisconsin House, Robyn Vos. After a long conference of convincing, Novak told him no. Novak then received a call from Governor Scott Walker. Again, Novak said no.
“After about three months, I mind about it. And I figured a door only opens once and sometimes you got to trek through it and obtain a chance,” Novak says. So he called up Vos and finally said yes. But first, the Wisconsin Republican party needed to run a accepted background check. Passing with flying colors, Novak met with Vos to observe. “If you&
Sarah Longwell ’02 was elected in January to be the first female chairman of Log Cabin Republicans, the country’s most prominent organization for LGBT conservatives. Longwell, who was a political science major at Kenyon, lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and son, and is a senior vice president and partner at the communications firm Berman and Company.
Q: How did you get involved with Log Cabin Republicans?
A: It was complete happenstance. I had a friend who was the political reporter for The Advocate here in D.C., and when [former Republican National Committee chairman] Ken Mehlman came out of the closet in 2010, she wanted to do a story profiling other LGBT Republicans. So, she profiled me and all of a sudden my phone started ringing with calls from people and organizations wanting to get me involved. I was surprised by the reaction, but there simply aren’t many lesbian Republicans and these groups were eager to add some diversity. It was unused to me back then to talk about same-sex attracted issues; I worked every day in politics and public policy but I had never been emotionally attached in anything specifically LGBT. At the time, the marriage equality conversation w
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