In her morning announcements, Nevada RNC committeewoman Heidi Smith announced she had free tickets to HomoCon, the convention party thrown for Republican gays and lesbians, and asked who in the crowded breakfast ballroom wanted them.
You could have heard a pin drop.
“Any one?” Smith asked, looking around the room, as she gave more details about the affair –Tuesday night, until 2 a.m., free, fun?
Still crickets.
Finally someone spoke up.
“I’ll take ‘em,” called out Carl Bunce from the back of the room, getting up and making a broad stride up to the podium to grab a ticket. “Those guys know how to party.”
Vice-chair James Smack then also got up to ask for and claim a ticket.
But though the ice was broken, and though Smith had more tickets to offer, the requests stopped there.
Must we be reminded of this?
And of this?
And of this?
Though this year’s Democratic Platform is the most pro-LGBT in history, complete with full support for marriage equality,the Republican Platform is set to be as anti-LGBT as ever, according to drafts approved by subcommittees Monday. Despite Log Cabin Republicans’ hopes that the language would include at least an allusion to “dignity and respect” for gay people, R. Clarke Cooper conceded that the end result is “bad with a capital ‘B.’” Tony Perkins, of the anti-gay hate group the Family Research Council, took personal credit for drafting the anti-equality language, boasting that platform drafting leaders Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) were “friends of FRC.”
This gets back to something I was alluding to yesterday. Even though Republican leaders want to make it seem like they're now a "diverse and inclusive party", reality just doesn't sync with them. Even Mitt Romney himself has basically conceded that his base is overwhelmingly old, white, and straight (and majority male on top of all that), and that his only plausible path to victory lies in fueling racial tension.
So we shouldn't be surprised that the G-O-TEA also wants to slap around LGBTQ families at least one more time in hopes of riding "the bigotry train" to victory this fall. However, they have a problem now. The country is changing, and especially younger voters are not being "turned on" by all this idiocy. It remains to be seen if the Romney-Heller-Heck "All Exclusive Strategy" will really work here in Nevada or in other swing states this fall.
And no, accepting free "HomoCon" tickets won't make up for celebrating discrimination against our families. Sorry, Nevada G-O-TEA. But seriously, why can't you hear the 21st century knocking at your door?
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