I’ll admit it. I’m one lucky bastard. Because of my active role in our local and statewide Republican Party, I was fortunate enough to be selected to be an alternate delegate to the Republican Convention in Tampa next week. I could easily have a say in the future of our party, and—if we win—the future of our country. But whether or not I’m selected to vote, I’ll be there on the inside.

I’ll be talking with the deciders. I’ve been given a voice. One of the things I look forward to most while I’m in Tampa is the opportunity to meet Paul Ryan.

Ryan’s entry into the race inspires both excitement and fear in the gay people I talk to, mostly because he is an unknown quantity (except to us political nerds).

People wonder aloud, Will he take our kids away? Will we ever get the right to marry? Is my Medicare saved or destroyed by his budget plan? Can he really cut the deficit without killing the economy? These questions deserve answers, which history suggests we will see at the convention.

When I see Romney/Ryan in Tampa, I’ll be wearing a rainbow elephant, both figuratively and literally. I’ll stand with the growing number of pro-equality Republican officeholders and candidates, and if given a moment with the candidates, I will remind them of our growing number, in the GOP and across America. Will I single-handedly move the dial on equality?

Who knows? But I know I’m doing more good on the inside than I would by hollering and rioting from the outside. There is little doubt that recent pandering to the LGBT and Latino communities has assured President Obama a support among minorities that once looked shaky.

My gay friends are happily misadvised that “pandering” equals “policy,” and I often tease them to go and rent a chapel, and send me an invitation to their Obama approved weddings. Do you suppose those invitations all got lost in the mail?

Maybe they realize the truth: President Obama’s positions are hollow. His progress on gay issues is only due to a bipartisan will to move forward, or at least move on. Single-issue LGBT voters are being taken for a ride on the U.S.S. Barack, but it is a sinking ship. President Obama’s anti-coattails will sweep in a Republican House, and Senate to boot. Fortunately, Mitt Romney is probably the most pro gay Republican presidential nominee— in record, if not always in rhetoric—that America has ever seen. There is no need for gays to fret the coming change in the White House.

When I meet Paul Ryan in Tampa, I’ll be standing with a champion for our party and our country. This young, gay, conservative, pro-equality Republican is ecstatic about the Romney/Ryan ticket, and I will be proud to cast my votes in favor of America’s Comeback Team, both at the convention and at the ballot box.

Mitt Romney will make a great president, and he—and we—will be well served with Paul Ryan at his side.

Nick Stone is Vice President of the Broward County Young Republicans, the former Vice President of Sunshine Republicans GOProud and campaign manager for Scott R. Herman for State Representative, District 94.

FORT LAUDERDALE – The Angry Left doesn’t have conservative commentator and author Andrew Breitbart to kick around anymore. I’m sorry to admit I never considered the legendary blogger a hero until he was gone. But his absence hit me and the country with a deafening thud.

Breitbart dedicated himself to the cause of bringing to light the hypocrisy and vulgarity of the so-called “progressive” left.

He wasn’t about to let them get away with pretending to be open-minded and accepting of individuality. He knew the dark history of the Left and its members’ penchant for the politics of division. Thanks to his work, many of us know the truth, too.

Sometimes Breitbart got it wrong when breaking a story. With his flair for the dramatic, he would occasionally overplay a nugget of truth as though he had the scoop of the century. But along the way, he did uncover some doozies and got Americans talking about some previously unspoken political truths. Beyond muckraking, he used his larger-than-life personality to rally unlikely groups to the conservative brotherhood.

Breitbart was a man of inclusion. He served on the advisory council of the gay Republican group GOProud and was known to have many gay, liberal, and minority friends. While this fact rarely caused right wing outrage, it did spark a meltdown on the left.

The rumor mill spat vile epithets at Breitbart, accusing him of being a closeted gay, predicting that he would die of AIDS, rot in hell, etc. In his lighthearted fashion, Andrew would re-tweet the messages as an homage to and reminder of the true nature of the left.

Breitbart urged conservatives from all walks of life to keep focused on opposing the radical (read: entire) Left, rather than each other. At a recent gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he admonished the GOP faithful to rise above personal differences for the urgent cause of defeating the political opposition.

“The Republican Party and the conservative movement is not what ABC and CBS puts up on the screen,” Breitbart announced. “They try to portray you in the worst possible light. And when I walk through CPAC or I travel through the United States and I meet people in the Tea Party who care–black, white, gay, and straight–anyone who’s willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive Left, I will be in that bunker.

And if you’re not in that bunker because you’re not satisfied with this candidate, [then] more than shame on you. You’re on the other side.”

In some strange way, Breitbart made it “cool,” or at least acceptable to be conservative.

Was he a gay hero? For those of us who want to see both parties fighting for inclusion and equality, maybe he should have been. The truth is that the world at large was a much, much better place with him in it.

Stone:Gay and lesbian voters should be very happy that Mitt Romney won the Sunshine State’s Republican presidential primary last month. The results showed that Florida Republicans care more about liberating our economy than shackling our community. By choosing a pro-growth businessman over a social conservative, Floridians chose to look  forward rather than backward.

Terrill: I don’t think that gay and lesbian voters have much to cheer about in any of the Republican candidates. Romney may be considered “Republican Light” in some circles, but we both know that he recently went on a tirade about Obama’s so-called “assault on marriage and religion,” so let’s not pretend that he will fall on the right (our “right”) side of that particular issue at the end of the day.

Stone: Speaking of Barack Obama, Florida voters look forward to  electing a new president.  Erosion of support among youth and the  elderly alike, not to mention Jews and Hispanics, will cost the  president come November.  With Obama’s approval ratings below 50 percent, the president is in real political trouble in the Sunshine State.  Like liberals always say, demographics are destiny.

Terrill: Speaking on behalf of all “liberals [who] always say” that—come to think of it, when do we say that?  This particular liberal does not think that approval ratings polls are worth the paper they’re printed on.  Personally, I have never been selected by such a poll for my opinion–I don’t own a landline telephone–so therein is your flaw.

Stone: Political activists don’t complain about polls unless they are behind in those polls’ numbers.  When you hear, “the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day,” for example, you can bet your bottom dollar that person’s cause is grasping at straws. But if you don’t  trust polls, which is a legitimate position to take, then trust your gut. President Obama won Florida with 51% of the vote. Since 2008,  do you think he has earned or lost support?  Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.

Terrill: I’m a multicultural kind of guy—and I realize that Florida’s Hispanic voters, mainly Cuban Americans, have always had a good number of Republicans in their midst. This year might be different, though, as Republicans like Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Donald Trump, and other “birthers,” “ID’ers,” and genuine racists have clearly indicated that not everyone is “American, First” in their eyes.  Romney is perhaps even worse when it comes to race issues. When you belong to a church that did not let a black person through the front door until the late 1970s, you’ve got big race-relation problems.  At least with Obama, Hispanic women are now represented in our highest court and gays can openly serve in their country’s armed forces with pride and dignity.

Stone: Left wing charges of “bigotry” neglect certain inconvenient truths. For starters, the reason gays can serve their country is that a  growing bipartisan consensus says they should.  For the LGBT  community, marriage equality is rightfully the mother of all culture wars.  I take great pride pointing out that both of the attorneys who argued Bush v. Gore in 2000, teamed up in bipartisan support for equality.  Liberals pummel conservatives as bigots on the issue, ignoring their own elephant in the room. Putting politics above  principle, Obama lacks the fortitude to speak up for marriage before the election. So I challenge any left-wing activist to come out from behind their 2012 rainbow sign and riddle me this: how does Obama’s position on marriage differ from Mitt Romney’s, again?

Terrill: I agree that Obama could stand to “gay up” his rhetoric on  marriage, but certainly not before the election. That would just  firebrand the opponents.  Regardless of Mitt Romney’s recent anti-gay marriage revelation, experience tells me that he would sign any bill that Congress brings him, no matter how objectionable.

If you believe in equality under the law, it might surprise you when I say that a Mormon Republican is our best bet for president in 2012. Take a deep breath and keep reading.

Let me start by saying that Republican candidates want gay votes. They just don’t think they are going to get them. In Republican circles, it can be an uphill battle to get candidates to campaign in gay and minority areas.  On the surface, it might seem that they don’t want your vote, but that’s simply untrue.

There was a time when the Republican Party was outwardly hostile toward gays.  This isn’t 2004, and George W. Bush isn’t president. Countless examples exist of the Democratic Party’s history of discrimination and repression, but I’ll forego that lesson for now. Just know that today’s Republican Party would truly surprise you if you gave it a second look.

It’s often said that demographics are the future of partisan politics. Growing numbers of Latinos, blacks, and gays are supposed to wipe out the Republican majority forever. But what these pundits don’t count on is the core of the Republican coalition. They don’t know that today’s Republican Party is flooded with the ranks of two groups: young people with an intense Libertarian streak (and lots of gay friends with fabulous weddings to attend), and former Democrats who have been turned-off by their party’s Obama-Pelosi wing of big, intrusive government. You know these as the Tea Party.

In New Hampshire several weeks ago, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney was asked, “When was the last time you stood up for gay rights?” The moderator repeated Romney’s own words, “I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party, and I would be a voice in the Republican Party to foster anti-discrimination efforts.”

Romney did not back down from his pledge.  He said, “If people are looking for someone who will discriminate against gays, or will in any way try and suggest that people that have different sexual orientation in this country don’t have full rights, they won’t find that in me.” When was the last time he spoke out for gay rights?  “Right now,” he proclaimed among Republican challengers in a Republican audience.  That Republican audience’s reaction: thunderous applause.

Gays are not one-issue voters.  Many of us own businesses: we don’t want them killed by over-regulation. Many of us have children: we don’t want to leave them with a mountain of debt. All of us pay taxes: we don’t want them drown our family budgets. Many of us still vote Democrat, because that’s what gays are supposed to do.

South Florida LGBT voters led the way in 2010, swinging a full third of our votes to Republicans.  With Mitt Romney at the top of the GOP ticket, I’m confident that this November will pave the way for a brand new Republican coalition that stands for liberty for all.  If LGBT voters are willing to look forward, that will be the legacy of today’s Republican Party.  If you want to see real progress, take a chance on a Mormon Republican who has an open mind. Or, you can support a Democrat who takes your vote for granted.

Photo: Mitt Romney: Gay-Friendlier Than You Might Have Imagined.

Nick Stone is Vice President of the Broward County Young Republicans. You can read more of his work at DrawnLines.com