The year was 2016 and the Wall Street Journal ran a video where there were two openly gay men at the Republican National Convention, something that most Americans were fine with, but some Republicans might have had some consternation with because of religious reasons. However, contrary to what some on the far-left would expect to happen, the event happened without the hullabaloo that one would expect from the religious right. As it turns out, the fear of Hillary Clinton was enough to outweigh the fear of two gay men hugging in public. However, even as the party was attempting to diversify its platform to allow more ideological platforms on board, there was already an organization working behind the scenes to train the next generation of young Republicans to screw it up for the millennials and Generation Xers who were hoping that the progress wouldn’t have to be snagged again. That organization was Turning Point USA.
The context of my story stems from the recent announcement of a specific figure who was aligned with Turning Point USA who is gay, Rob Smith, who has left the GOP over his treatment. Rob Smith’s case was more public where his race and sexuality were attacked by Fuentes-lite members of the Turning Point organization who harassed him at the America Fest event held earlier this year. The same event also racialized Nikki Haley’s name in an attempt to other her in the Republican field despite not applying the same standard to Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also of Indian descent, because he espoused more favorable talking points to their ideological framework. Smith attempted to defend his continued support for the Republican Party after the event on CNN afterward knowing he would receive a thorny reception from the host, but the event produced a backlash against him from both the left and the right with his verbal critics claiming he was playing the victim.
In the wake of Aaron Schock and George Santos producing a type of hate-hate relationship between gay Republican Congressmen and their constituents for reasons involving alleged crimes in office with their sexuality being something that was already a fringe consideration for some parts of the base, the smear campaign from the right-leaning part of the base against gay conservatives has been severe enough to where those who want to seek advancement in the party either choose personal lives that are unfulfilling or political careers that are dogged by relative failures. Turning Point USA has been at the cutting edge of this forced misery employing such figures as Morgan Ariel who used the term “fa**ot” as if it were the word “the”, only being fired after allegations of anti-Semitism dogged her career enough to force her firing.
This has been important to mention in the context of Republican politics because the party has made sparing attempts to connect with LGBT voters including establishing the “Pride Coalition” under the RNC and Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) codifying gay marriage in the state of Virginia. The party wants the LGBT vote, yet has to contend with factions within the party undermining the efforts to appeal to swing voters by suggesting that they are explicitly not welcome. While the party shouldn’t bend to the demands of the sex worker class and start advocating for wider abortion access to appeal for progressive votes, there are more elements to the party than just the religious base and the most studiously religious parts of the base are softening on gay marriage. The most hardened anti-gay “religious” voices ironically are the least church-going, least knowledgeable on religion as well as the least well-educated voters, but claim that religion is heavily important to them. This produces the most hostile environment for gay Republicans who have to deal with a regressive period for the party when other groups have been routinely softening their stances on gay marriage, gay adoption, etc.
On a final note, there should be a difference made between the valid grievances made between Rob Smith and figures such as George Santos, who was kicked out of Congress for allegations dealing with using campaign funds for OnlyFans, Botox, etc. Being frustrated from years of mistreatment after spending that time advocating for tolerance while supporting party candidates for seemingly no plausible gains should be differentiated from being credibly accused of being a questionable politician who cost the GOP a seat in Congress and put the reputation of his colleagues at risk in New York. Nevertheless, the ugliness is there for gay Republicans and recent weeks have highlighted how more figures that grew up in the influencer class under the premise of “just be yourself” as a general tagline apparently means nothing when those you are trying to influence have no interest in the same values that you espouse.
Sources: Gay Couple Gets Death Threats for Supporting Trump (youtube.com)
Gay Black Republican Leaves Party: ‘I Was Betrayed’ (msn.com)
GOP Rep. George Santos expelled from House (cnn.com)
RNC announces ‘Pride Coalition,’ partnership with Log Cabin Republicans ahead of midterms | Fox News
LGBTQ+ Advisory Board (virginia.gov)
Morgan Ariel (@itsmorganariel) / X (twitter.com) (One can sift through her Twitter feed for the past tweets anti-Semitic and homophobic alike)
The Conservatarian Millennial 