Thursday, September 2, 2010

Flipping left and right

Obama, who hasn't been the fierce advocate he said he would be, may find his careful and cautious approach to gay legislation backfire. The Dems calculated they didn't need to push all that hard on gay issues because gays didn't have any other political home -- the GOP was too antagonistic. Never mind the existence of Log Cabin Republicans or the newer GOProud.

But, as I've been writing over the last few days, many in the GOP are saying some rather nice things about gays. Many of them are from the libertarian branch of the party and are farther left on gay issues than Obama. That's making a few outspoken gays think they may soon have a better chance of making progress through the GOP, abandoning the Dems.

Here's an example. The GOP in Utah noticed that one of their preferred candidates for a state senate seat was going to miss the deadline to file for candidacy. So they contacted Melvin Nimer, the Utah president of Log Cabin Republicans, who completed his filing within a day. The contest will feature a gay-friendly Democrat against an actual gay Republican. The choice isn't so simply anymore. And this is in Utah!

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