More Than Half Of Tea Party Supporters Say Gays And Lesbians Have Too Much Political Power

[Kathryn]

Thanks for asking in a non inflammatory manner.

I have been to at least 4 Tea Party events and political meetings (more if you count informal events). Gay marriage was not brought up, was not discussed, was not even referenced in any veiled sort of way at ANY of the events I've been a part of. In fact, homosexuality was not mentioned one time.

I saw absolutely ZERO evidence of racism. As you know, I have four biracial kids and six multiracial grandchildren, as well as an adopted brother from Korea. I have NO TOLERANCE of racism, and neither does my husband. Nothing will move us out of a room faster. I saw no evidence of racism at any event or gathering. In fact, quite the opposite - I have heard people bemoan the fact that there aren't more minorities in the Tea Party movement, and though we've tried to pull more in and open more multiracial discussions, frankly, it's been tough going. Now - I wonder which way that racism goes?

Every Tea Party event I've been to has focused strictly on the economic concerns. We haven't even touched on social issues. The Tea Partiers I've been in contact with are generally socially libertarian and fiscally conservative.

I will say that I have intentionally disassociated myself from the local Republican Party. Well - I never WAS associated with them, but as the Tea Party movement has grown in this area, the Republican Party headquarters has attempted to organize from their base and has contacted me several times since my husband and I are active politically. Each time we've made it very clear that we are not partisan - that we are uninterested in a movement that is partisan.

To their credit - the Republican Party headquarters here has reached out to the Democrat Party locally - as has the Tea Party movement. The local Democrat Party has ignored all attempts at bipartisan involvement and refused to even sit down and discuss issues.

The Tea Party events I've attended have had several minority speakers, and at least one gay speaker (he identified himself as such - there may be more, I don't know). Without exception, their speeches focused on the fiscal side of things.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Thanks for asking in a non inflammatory manner.

I have been to at least 4 Tea Party events and political meetings (more if you count informal events). Gay marriage was not brought up, was not discussed, was not even referenced in any veiled sort of way at ANY of the events I've been a part of. In fact, homosexuality was not mentioned one time.

I saw absolutely ZERO evidence of racism. As you know, I have four biracial kids and six multiracial grandchildren, as well as an adopted brother from Korea. I have NO TOLERANCE of racism, and neither does my husband. Nothing will move us out of a room faster. I saw no evidence of racism at any event or gathering. In fact, quite the opposite - I have heard people bemoan the fact that there aren't more minorities in the Tea Party movement, and though we've tried to pull more in and open more multiracial discussions, frankly, it's been tough going. Now - I wonder which way that racism goes?

Yes, I get that from your posts. Your position on racism is one I applaud.

Every Tea Party event I've been to has focused strictly on the economic concerns. We haven't even touched on social issues. The Tea Partiers I've been in contact with are generally socially libertarian and fiscally conservative.

I think this is why I'm a little skeptical about the Tea Party. The social issues that surround GLBTQ rights are ones I'm very passionate about. I have yet to find a party that embraces the kind of fiscal conservatism I do along with embracing full equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered in the way I do.

I will say that I have intentionally disassociated myself from the local Republican Party. Well - I never WAS associated with them, but as the Tea Party movement has grown in this area, the Republican Party headquarters has attempted to organize from their base and has contacted me several times since my husband and I are active politically. Each time we've made it very clear that we are not partisan - that we are uninterested in a movement that is partisan.

To their credit - the Republican Party headquarters here has reached out to the Democrat Party locally - as has the Tea Party movement. The local Democrat Party has ignored all attempts at bipartisan involvement and refused to even sit down and discuss issues.

The Tea Party events I've attended have had several minority speakers, and at least one gay speaker (he identified himself as such - there may be more, I don't know). Without exception, their speeches focused on the fiscal side of things.

And here is why I have a little beef with the Tea Party.....I'm seeing a push to introduce them not as a simple grassroots organization like the Concord Coalition (non partisan organization dedicated to finding sustainable solutions for reducing the deficit and the overall national debt), but as a viable political party. I understand the call for less government, but does that mean less government in all aspects of life? Are citizens allowed en masse to civilly discriminate? Does the Tea Party believe in stepping out of situations where businesses want to discriminate based on race? On sexual orientation? On age? On religious belief (or lack thereof)?

It's kind of the same parallel I had back in the Absinence-Only Sex Education thread, where I felt that abstaining from sex is a choice that I would honor and respect, but the discussion shouldn't end there: I'm curious where teens and adults who choose to abstain decide what they're abstaining from. And the same goes for the Tea Party........how much should the government step out of our lives when the majority of the citizens are using their vote and their tax dollars to discriminate against minorities? To what exactly is the government abstaining from?

I don't have all the answers, to be honest. I struggle with this all the time, but it at least gives me an idea of who I should support and who I shouldn't when there is clarity in a party's position on social issues. I don't support either the Democrats OR the Republicans because I hear the same tripe from both parties.......when Clinton's administration pushed DOMA through, it sealed the deal for me that I couldn't see any party willing to fight for GLBTQs rights. Both parties at the time (and still to this day) sound just as religiously influenced and just as bigoted as each other, although they both cater to each of their constituents in different languages that pretty much say the same thing: as long as queers know their place, everyone will be happy. And as a bi-sexual, hearing that over and over again makes me utterly depressed and sick to my stomach.

Well, that's my emotional reaction anyway. My rational side asks, "What can we do now?" And that's what I've been looking into. We need to continue to educate, but we also need to take action on a civil level, and if the Tea Party were to at the very least make a public statement that the government must not only stay out of the collective pocketbook of the nation, but out of the bedrooms and out of deciding which adult citizens can get a legal marriage, I wouldn't find myself so skeptical of their intentions.

Think of the scenario of when someone has been abused for years, how instinctively they resort to fight-or-flight when faced with a new relationship with another entity. We GLBTQs have been trampled on, thrown under the bus, and marginalized for so long, I don't know who to believe anymore. So, yes, I'm very suspiscious of the Tea Party, it's popularity, and it's agenda.

 

[Mr Cheese]

is any of this really surprising?

hate hiding behind a political movement...with the public paid face of sarah palin

insanity doesn't even begin to describe it

 

[Mr Cheese]

Yes, I get that from your posts. Your position on racism is one I applaud.



I think this is why I'm a little skeptical about the Tea Party. The social issues that surround GLBTQ rights are ones I'm very passionate about. I have yet to find a party that embraces the kind of fiscal conservatism I do along with embracing full equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered in the way I do.



And here is why I have a little beef with the Tea Party.....I'm seeing a push to introduce them not as a simple grassroots organization like the Concord Coalition (non partisan organization dedicated to finding sustainable solutions for reducing the deficit and the overall national debt), but as a viable political party. I understand the call for less government, but does that mean less government in all aspects of life? Are citizens allowed en masse to civilly discriminate? Does the Tea Party believe in stepping out of situations where businesses want to discriminate based on race? On sexual orientation? On age? On religious belief (or lack thereof)?

It's kind of the same parallel I had back in the Absinence-Only Sex Education thread, where I felt that abstaining from sex is a choice that I would honor and respect, but the discussion shouldn't end there: I'm curious where teens and adults who choose to abstain decide what they're abstaining from. And the same goes for the Tea Party........how much should the government step out of our lives when the majority of the citizens are using their vote and their tax dollars to discriminate against minorities? To what exactly is the government abstaining from?

I don't have all the answers, to be honest. I struggle with this all the time, but it at least gives me an idea of who I should support and who I shouldn't when there is clarity in a party's position on social issues. I don't support either the Democrats OR the Republicans because I hear the same tripe from both parties.......when Clinton's administration pushed DOMA through, it sealed the deal for me that I couldn't see any party willing to fight for GLBTQs rights. Both parties at the time (and still to this day) sound just as religiously influenced and just as bigoted as each other, although they both cater to each of their constituents in different languages that pretty much say the same thing: as long as queers know their place, everyone will be happy. And as a bi-sexual, hearing that over and over again makes me utterly depressed and sick to my stomach.

Well, that's my emotional reaction anyway. My rational side asks, "What can we do now?" And that's what I've been looking into. We need to continue to educate, but we also need to take action on a civil level, and if the Tea Party were to at the very least make a public statement that the government must not only stay out of the collective pocketbook of the nation, but out of the bedrooms and out of deciding which adult citizens can get a legal marriage, I wouldn't find myself so skeptical of their intentions.

Think of the scenario of when someone has been abused for years, how instinctively they resort to fight-or-flight when faced with a new relationship with another entity. We GLBTQs have been trampled on, thrown under the bus, and marginalized for so long, I don't know who to believe anymore. So, yes, I'm very suspiscious of the Tea Party, it's popularity, and it's agenda.

well said...

however I despise the term fiscally conservative

to me thats a catchphrase for "I don't want to share"

 

[Gunfingers]

You'll want to look to a third party. You might like the green party.

Greens emphasize environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace and nonviolence.

I can't seem to find a definite list on how fiscally conservative they are.

Personally, i'm a libertarian, which is kind of a dirty word around here because most people think libertarian=tea bagger, and of course tea bagger=the extreme tea baggers you see on the news.
Where exactly we fall on the issue of legal discrimination tends to vary from one to another, with most leaning towards a hands-off approach. I see legal discrimination more as a perfect-world answer, personally, and am not really sure it's workable in the world we live in today. We do have a strong history of pro-LGBT, though we're far from perfect.

 

[Duck]

well said...

however I despise the term fiscally conservative

to me thats a catchphrase for "I don't want to share"

For me it is not so much the phrase "fiscally conservative" that makes me twitch in a knee jerk reaction as the word "conservative". For too long "conservative" has been used to describe "social conservative" or "family values conservative" which if of course code for "get back in the closet where you belong you damned dirty homo before I beat you into submission".

I can't even hear the word "conservative" without automatically translating that to "bigot". It makes discussions of various properties in the atmospheric and other sciences pretty awkward sometimes.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

You'll want to look to a third party. You might like the green party.

I can't seem to find a definite list on how fiscally conservative they are.

Personally, i'm a libertarian, which is kind of a dirty word around here because most people think libertarian=tea bagger, and of course tea bagger=the extreme tea baggers you see on the news.
Where exactly we fall on the issue of legal discrimination tends to vary from one to another, with most leaning towards a hands-off approach. I see legal discrimination more as a perfect-world answer, personally, and am not really sure it's workable in the world we live in today. We do have a strong history of pro-LGBT, though we're far from perfect.

LOL I can't stand Bob Barr.

I've gotten used to being a political orphan. Thanks anyway, though.

 

[Kathryn]

Mystic - Thanks for your very eloquent post. I could find very little to disagree with - in fact, so little, that I'm not even going to cut and quote.

As a social libertarian Christian who believes that EVERY PERSON is made in the image of God and that all human life is sacred, I also believe that we have no business judging others - leave that to the Creator.

Over the years I've had many GLBTG friends and when I say friends, I mean true friends. Several of them are what we might call (for lack of a better phrase) fiscally CONSERVATIVE, or very anti-Democrat party because of the fiscal irresponsibility they feel the party represents. My point is that they don't seem to fit anywhere on the American political spectrum.

Neither do I, for that matter. To the Tea Party movement - I have yet to see a defined political platform - and when or if they do present one, I'm nearly certain there will be things in it that make me run screaming from the room. But I feel the same way about the Libertarian platform, and the Green platform, and of COURSE those two old sloppy whores - the Democrat and Republican platforms. YUCK.

I don't pour my political energies into any one particular party or even movement. At the last Tea Party meeting, you should have seen the look of alarm on some of those church ladies' faces when I started talking disrespectfully about government in general. I knew right then and there that whatever direction things take, I won't be in the same room with them very often.

But then - politics makes strange bedfellows.

All this just to say - I support causes and rights. I stand against the infringement of our rights. Sometimes this puts me on the right, and sometimes it puts me on the left - but it usually puts me outside the mainstream. And frankly, that's where I like to be.

I think you're the same way. Embrace independence. Rage against the machine! Raise hell! Proudly be a maverick (I think you're already there) and don't take any **** off anyone.

That's my sage advice and my game plan anyway.

Oh, and buy a gun.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

They say gays and lesbians have too much political power huh? Yeah I guess that's why we've been fighting for our rights for well over 60 years now and we still haven't achieved it. Yes we sure do have a whole lot of power. LOL

 

[Levite]

I have met a number of Teabaggers of late, and while clearly there are exceptions (present company apparently included in the exceptions), for the most part, Teabag seems to equal d o u c h e b a g: they don't want health care, they love big corporations, they are positively nineteenth-century in their embrace of laissez-faire unrestricted capitalism, they don't want equal rights for gay and lesbian folks, they don't seem to much like anyone who's not white or at least culturally dissociated from their nonwhite ethnicity, they seem to be big fans of sacrificing civil liberties in the pursuit of national security, and they appear not to be fans of helping the poor or the disabled or anyone who isn't successful in "pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps." Frankly, they all seem to be mourning the fact that America is no longer what it was during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, or possibly Benjamin Harrison.

And I say this not as a knee-jerk Democrat: I only voted for Obama and Biden because they weren't John McCain and Sarah Palin. I have always presumed (and so far nothing has happened to change my mind) that Obama (and any other Democratic president or senator) is just as insular and corporate and dedicated to playing political games that result in nothing ever happening as the rest of those in power, Republican and Democrat alike.

My problem with this country is that it is a government of plutocrats and oligarchs, who are interested in their own power and money, and little else. The right wing (Teabaggers and their ilk) are bigots and fundamentalists and corporate greedheads out to take us back to the age of robber barons, oppressively unrestricted labor, imperialist foreign policy, and patronage/spoils. The left wing are a bunch of bumblers, the keystone kops of progressivism, unable to get together to really organize and force reforms, lost in their own idealistic visions and unable to take the first pragmatic steps, and dismissed as wild-eyed radicals by everyone who doesn't really understand what progressive politics are-- which is most people. Democrats and Republicans are in the center, and do nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, and are for sale to the highest bidder.

Gays and lesbians having too much power?! Who cares whether politicans are screwing men or screwing women, so long as they're screwing all of us?!

 

[Kathryn]

LIke I've said before, Democrats and Republicans are the sloppy whores of American politics.