Observer photo by John Riley
“Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I support liberal policies that have nothing to do with my sexuality,” says American University sophomore Steve Sondheimer.

Members of this political minority identify more with GOP than gay community

by JOHN RILEY

Steve Sondheimer is proud to say he loves capitalism. He believes in balanced budgets and low taxes. He opposes national healthcare. He’d feel more comfortable around Rudy Giuliani than Hillary Clinton.

But the 20-year-old Illinois native and American University student is also seriously considering getting married one day. To another man.

Shocking? It’s more common than you might think.

“People say, ‘How can you be gay and be a Republican?’ I’ve been asked so many times, I know the answer,” says Sondheimer. “Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I support liberal policies that have nothing to do with my sexuality.”

Sondheimer is one of a number of young gay people who identify themselves as politically conservative. By choosing to be defined by two equal facets of their identity — their political orientation and their sexuality — these gay conservatives are rebelling against the prevailing sentiments and stereotypes in both the gay community and the larger conservative movement.

But the past few years have also seen an intense polarization between the gay community and traditional conservatives. Twenty-two states have voted to ban gay marriage or domestic partnership benefits for gays in the past three years, with state and congressional Republicans at the forefront of such initiatives. President Bush’s support for a proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to ban gay marriage became a major issue in the 2004 presidential election. That same year, the Republican-led U.S. Senate rejected an attempt to amend the federal hate crime law to include homosexuals.

The number of ballot initiatives calling for bans on gay marriage and civil unions, which were a response to the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts and the issuance of marriage licenses to gay couples in cities like San Francisco, were steps taken by traditional conservatives who felt the institution of marriage was being attacked through judicial activism.

But the presence of such initiatives on the ballot only solidified the gay community’s support for Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). In the wake of the 2004 election, nationwide exit polls showed that those who identified themselves as gay or lesbian overwhelmingly voted for Kerry, giving him 77 percent of their votes. Similarly, a study for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force by Patrick Egan of Princeton University and Kenneth Sherrill of Hunter College showed gay and lesbian voters favored Democratic candidates over Republican candidates by a margin of 75 percent to 25 percent in the 2006 congressional and gubernatorial elections.

Yet despite the perception that Republicans are hostile toward gays, gay Republicans feel much more comfortable with their place in the political spectrum than in the gay community, says Sondheimer. In fact, most of the backlash against gay Republicans seems to come from the gay community, since there is a social stigma against those who espouse conservative policies, he says.

“They call us ’self-loathing,’” he jokes.

One time, Sondheimer remembers, a radical liberal woman confronted him about his conservative stances on issues. “She basically said, ‘How can you support Republican causes when they don’t support you?’ The implication was that I must not care about gay rights.”

People tend not to take gay Republicans and conservatives seriously, and make them the butt of jokes, says Sondheimer. The prevailing attitudes in the media or movies relegate gay Republicans to a caricature or a punch-line at their own expense.

“People think that when you’re gay, you have to act a certain way, such as being liberal, when that has nothing to do with it. It’d be nice if people could see all aspects of gay culture. There’s plenty of diversity in the gay population itself.”

Sondheimer needs only to look across American University’s campus to see that diversity.

Seated at the tables in the student center is Paul Casas, another gay conservative. The 20-year-old Greenwich, Conn. native is a staunch Republican and pro-life Catholic. He likes his taxes flat and his national defense strong and aggressive. He loves Ann Coulter, saying “I have a special place in my heart for her.”

Casas doesn’t believe that his sexual orientation matters, and it has certainly not been an obstacle in his life. But, he adds, there is a sense among gay conservatives of being a “traitor” in the eyes of other gays.

“You have people who perceive that they’re fighting for a goal, and when someone inside their ranks believes that goal has been achieved, there’s a breakdown within the group,” Casas says of the mob-like mentality within the gay community that tries to crush dissent.

Casas also doesn’t believe there’s much more left to fight for in terms of individual liberties for gay and lesbian people. It’s really not that rough to be gay, especially in a city like Washington, D.C., he says. Even in the places where it’s the “absolute worst” to be gay, it’s not that bad, Casas adds. And since he doesn’t support gay marriage, it isn’t even an issue to him.

“The big part of the fight is over,” he says. “We can have a parade. We can have sex. We have a TV station dedicated just to us. We have hate-crime legislation in some states. What is left to fight for outside of marriage and not just being tolerated, but accepted?”

“Twenty years ago, there was a real reason to be liberal about being gay,” he says. “Today, with less of a need for change, people have found a comfort zone. People are inherently lazy, so it’s very easy to be a passive conservative and say, ‘I just don’t care,’ when it comes to marriage and other gay rights.”

But there are conservatives who feel differently from Casas, including members of the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization of gays and lesbians working within the Republican Party to advance legislation that champions gay rights issues.

For instance, says Scott Tucker, the communications director for the Log Cabin Republicans, Log Cabin is planning to lobby for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which prohibits discrimination against employees based upon sexual orientation. Currently, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted anti-discrimination laws that protect gay and lesbians from being fired or denied access to housing, educational institutions, credit or public accommodations based solely on sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group committed to fighting for civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.

But these state anti-discrimination laws do not constitute an affirmative action program for gays; instead, they only prevent public and private employers from using sexual orientation as the sole basis for refusing to hire, demoting or terminating homosexual employees. Such practices are legal for private employers in the remaining 33 states.

Tucker also says that the Republicans’ defeat in the 2006 elections can serve as a lesson that the party needs to return to the center and return to its basic principles, since the defeat was due to the abandonment of the party by independent voters and moderates.

“If the party returned to its founding principles, they would win a lot more centrists, whether they were straight or gay,” says Tucker. He also says that he believes a less extreme view on gay issues could win over a sizeable number of gay and lesbian voters from the Democrats. Currently, gay people make up the third most partisan Democratic voting bloc, behind African-Americans and people of Jewish ancestry, according to a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force study on voting behavior.

Yet Tucker feels that a shift in gay and lesbian voting behavior may occur in another few decades.

“One of the most striking things is that for the next generation of Americans, most people don’t focus on gay issues. It doesn’t matter to them,” he says. He also believes that as society’s attitudes toward gays change, the gay community’s historically hostile attitudes toward Republicans are also fading, he says.

But if this optimistic view of the future where gays and Republicans can fully accept each other seems a long way off, it’s because it is, according to “Sam,” a 25-year-old gay Republican from Salem, Ore. who asked that his real name not be used for this article.

“Most people in the larger society just give you a raised eyebrow if you tell them you’re a gay Republican,” Sam says. “However, being Republican in the gay community is kind of hit or miss. Personally, I find the most static I get is from gay men who preach agendas of inclusiveness yet can’t include those whose views differ from theirs.

“Some of the flack I’ve gotten is from gay men who are Democrats or self-described ‘progressives’ who have said I am ’self-hating,’ or ‘in denial,’” Sam says. “I have had one experience where I was at a bar having a great conversation and when the guy found out I was a Republican, he stood up, said, ‘Thanks for wasting my evening,’ and walked away.”

Sam is turned off by the hegemony that exists in the gay subculture. He says some of the stereotyping he encounters comes from gay men who do not understand or agree with his political beliefs.

“It seems that among some gay men, because of the fact that I am gay, I’m expected to be pro-Democrat and waving a rainbow flag,” he says. “If anything, I feel my responsibility is to counter many of the stereotypes that are associated with the gay community.”

Like Tucker, Sam thinks that the Republican Party will eventually change its stances on social issues, but that this will happen only when either the party distances itself from the Christian Right or the current leaders die or leave public office.

“I think some of the ‘up and coming’ conservatives will see this whole ‘gay Republican’ thing and say, ‘What was the big deal?’”