“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles Mackay 

CLIFF DUNN – EDITOR

It’s probably a case of residual childhood naivety—and, admittedly, way too early in the silly season—for me to ask the politically active to “stop the insanity” when it comes to making blanket judgments, statements, and actions, about opposing candidates, ideologies—or sexual identities—but a boy can wish. I also seem to experience a form of quadrennial amnesia, in that after each presidential election cycle I forget just how acerbic and “nutty” the attacks can become. I experienced a touch of this over the past month, when this publication ran (and in this issue is running) opinion columns with a decidedly conservative (albeit LGBT) bent. (For a deeper discussion of this, see the Box, below.)

Like a lot of gay people, I take exception to businesses that contribute to causes which have a deleterious effect on LGBT rights and specifically—at this juncture in our history—marriage equality. When Chick-fil-A’s brand of conservative politics became public knowledge, I decided that I would no longer “fund” their perfectly legitimate right to oppose an issue that is central to my sense of fairness and what it means to be a free American (this same sentiment fuels my electoral discomfort with the GOP). In fairness to Chick-fil-A and the Cathy family, they didn’t lose much in the way of revenues, but I know many gay and lesbian consumers who couldn’t even spell “K-F-C” last week and now have suddenly developed worship-fantasies for the Colonel. (As is their right.)

What I can’t countenance is when people who are generally fair and wellmeaning in most areas of their private and public lives are targeted because they have acted against the politically correct dynamic of the moment. This happened this week to a friend of mine, an elected official who is straight but who is very progressive (he might say “libertarian”) in his views to gay rights. A traditionalist Republican, he is nonetheless a patriot and “good” citizen who doesn’t care what goes on in your bed or mine, and who supports (both capitalistically and financially) numerous Fortune 500 companies with progressive employment and public policies towards LGBT rights and employees.

So when my friend “liked” Chickfil- A on Facebook, he thought nothing of it (other than that he was supporting in a traditionalist—he might say “libertarian”—fashion a business’ right to give their money and support as they see fit, and as is their right), until a local political activist “un-friended” him and took him to task for his support of the chicken chain. My friend was shocked, because to his mind, his support for businesses that support gay rights should give him some cover (or at least buy him some goodwill).

Clearly, I’m not dismissing the value of “voting with your wallet,” and taking your business to places that value both it and you. But this seems to me to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. It also strikes me as a loss of perspective on what it means for us to be countrymen, rather than the very partisan beasts that many of the nation’s Founders warned us against becoming. I’m not saying that issues of this magnitude don’t deserve a serious and sober accounting of how we as a community will respond to issues of mutual concern—but let’s not forget that our diverse community includes many political stripes, and there are more gay conservatives in this community than you may realize.

We can either marginalize them (with the anticipated results and coeval loss of opportunities to build bridges and support systems), or welcome them in the greater whole. Most of us agree on the big picture items (rolling back DOMA, destroying the remaining cultural vestiges of DADT, enacting ENDA, etc), and, seriously— there’s no uniquely Democratic or Republican way to fix a street light, or approve a school zone, issues we can all come to accord upon, too.

(Full Disclosure: I was a registered Republican from 1997 to 2001, but had a “centrist” recovery in the early 2000s and now usually vote left-of-center.) Some Democrats will support Al Lamberti for Sheriff, and some Republicans will—gasp!—secretly press the lever for Obama. But I guess we are all entitled to our naughtiness, eh, love?