Could You Vote for a Gay Candidate for President?
SodaHead Politics
2011/02/16 16:00:00
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There are openly gay Democratic members of Congress, but is the GOP ready for its first out and proud presidential candidate? The Washington Post reported this week that little known openly gay Republican Fred Karger, 61, is contemplating a run for the White House and it’s unclear how his potential campaign might be received by his party.
Karger has never held elected office and is thinking about launching his campaign using the money he made as a conservative consultant that helped bring down Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis in 1988 with the infamous Willie Horton ads and who fought alongside big tobacco in the 1990s to fight against smoking bans in California.
All the while, he attended gay pride parades with one eye over his shoulder on the lookout for cameras, wrote checks to LGBT causes, and, after his retirement at 53, organized a coalition to save a historic bar in his hometown of Laguna Beach and formed a nonprofit to battle California’s Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban.
In that sense, the sometime actor (“Airport 1975,” “Mad Men,” Edge shaving commercials) has some solid conservative bonafides, he’s visited bellwether state New Hampshire more than any other potential candidate and wants to be a role model to gay youth as the first ever openly gay major party presidential candidate. No one has declared their intention to run yet, but Karger has already started burning through is retirement money at a $20,000-$30,000-a-month clip, spending much of it on Frisbees and T-shirts that read “FRED WHO?”
His platform is a bit thin at this point, consisting of lowering the voting age, education reform to make school “more interesting” and a unique lane as a pro-choice, antiwar compromiser in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. He seems realistic about his chances, but, like Rep. Ron Paul in 2008, he thinks he might be able to “crash the party” and at least challenge the other candidates on their gay rights views.
In fact, his work on the attempted Prop 8 defeat is partly the impetus for the potential presidential run, since the repeal effort on the bill will likely peak in late 2011, just as he’s already set down roots in New Hampshire and, hopefully, made inroads there with voters.
One of the biggest problems, though, according to the Post, is when he’s asked about things like balancing the budget, Karger “smiles and steers the subject back to gay marriage … When people ask him how he'd fix health care, he says ‘I still need to look into it.’”
Could you vote for a gay presidential candidate?
Karger has never held elected office and is thinking about launching his campaign using the money he made as a conservative consultant that helped bring down Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis in 1988 with the infamous Willie Horton ads and who fought alongside big tobacco in the 1990s to fight against smoking bans in California.
All the while, he attended gay pride parades with one eye over his shoulder on the lookout for cameras, wrote checks to LGBT causes, and, after his retirement at 53, organized a coalition to save a historic bar in his hometown of Laguna Beach and formed a nonprofit to battle California’s Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban.
In that sense, the sometime actor (“Airport 1975,” “Mad Men,” Edge shaving commercials) has some solid conservative bonafides, he’s visited bellwether state New Hampshire more than any other potential candidate and wants to be a role model to gay youth as the first ever openly gay major party presidential candidate. No one has declared their intention to run yet, but Karger has already started burning through is retirement money at a $20,000-$30,000-a-month clip, spending much of it on Frisbees and T-shirts that read “FRED WHO?”
His platform is a bit thin at this point, consisting of lowering the voting age, education reform to make school “more interesting” and a unique lane as a pro-choice, antiwar compromiser in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. He seems realistic about his chances, but, like Rep. Ron Paul in 2008, he thinks he might be able to “crash the party” and at least challenge the other candidates on their gay rights views.
In fact, his work on the attempted Prop 8 defeat is partly the impetus for the potential presidential run, since the repeal effort on the bill will likely peak in late 2011, just as he’s already set down roots in New Hampshire and, hopefully, made inroads there with voters.
One of the biggest problems, though, according to the Post, is when he’s asked about things like balancing the budget, Karger “smiles and steers the subject back to gay marriage … When people ask him how he'd fix health care, he says ‘I still need to look into it.’”
Could you vote for a gay presidential candidate?
"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
This ought to be good!
The word "gay" means a happy person or persons. It was hijacked to mean something it does not. Deviance is the proper term....
"Sexual deviance, and what is defined as sexually deviant, is culturally and historically specific. This concept refers to behaviors that involve individuals seeking erotic gratification through means that are considered odd, different, or unacceptable to either most or influential persons in one's community. As with most forms of deviance, sexual deviance is something that is defined differently by persons of different backgrounds, beliefs, morals, and locations. However, sexual deviance is also an idea about which most persons hold very strong views, and react in stigmatizing and ostracizing ways. Sexual deviance is a term that refers to behavior that has a sexual aspect to it and is considered a violation of either general societal norms or the expectations and/or limits of behavior for specific cultural settings. Defining some sexually oriented behavior as deviant means that the action meets at least one (or a combination) of four criteria: (1) degree of consent, (2) the nature of the perso...
The word "gay" means a happy person or persons. It was hijacked to mean something it does not. Deviance is the proper term....
"Sexual deviance, and what is defined as sexually deviant, is culturally and historically specific. This concept refers to behaviors that involve individuals seeking erotic gratification through means that are considered odd, different, or unacceptable to either most or influential persons in one's community. As with most forms of deviance, sexual deviance is something that is defined differently by persons of different backgrounds, beliefs, morals, and locations. However, sexual deviance is also an idea about which most persons hold very strong views, and react in stigmatizing and ostracizing ways. Sexual deviance is a term that refers to behavior that has a sexual aspect to it and is considered a violation of either general societal norms or the expectations and/or limits of behavior for specific cultural settings. Defining some sexually oriented behavior as deviant means that the action meets at least one (or a combination) of four criteria: (1) degree of consent, (2) the nature of the persons/objects involved in the action, (3) the actual action and body parts involved, or (4) the setting in which the behavior is performed. Generally speaking, sexual behavior that is not fully consensual by all persons involved is considered deviant. Rape and exhibitionism (where the persons to whom sexual images are presented are unwilling recipients) are obvious examples of sexual deviance"....