And now you?ve joined the re-election campaign, just in time to hear the president and your father say that they would support a federal marriage amendment.
What is it like, I often wonder, to have your own father court the very religious zealots who believe your kind are emotionally disturbed child molesters? What does it feel like to have your own father empower people who, if they could have their way, would force you to go through "conversion therapy"? What is it like to know that your own family takes cash from people who think you?d be better off dead, and think you?re going straight to hell when that happens?
Those who defend you say that you must feel absolutely terrible. They surmise that maybe you actually left RUC in protest, realizing that change in the party wasn?t possible, thus washing your hands of the entire matter. For that reason, they say, you shouldn?t now be blamed for trying, nor held accountable for your father?s positions. But the fact that you went to work for the re-election campaign says otherwise.
So here?s my theory, and maybe you can confirm it for me: The gay marriage issue is splitting the Republican Party; Dad and his crowd have told you that they?ve got to appear to be supportive of a constitutional amendment at this point, while they?re still firing up the religious right base. Once they have that constituency nailed down and they enter the general election, they?ll move toward the middle; they?ll say that there?s no need for the amendment, as the Defense of Marriage Act takes care of it. You?ll then be hauled back out of the closet to help snatch those moderate and gay Republican voters.
) and doesn't really need to hear that she's a "fiendish, nasty example of a human being." On the other hand, I suppose you could argue (as the author does) that her relatively privileged position means that she probably experiences less prejudice on a day-to-day basis than your average gay person.
