Dems Pushing Their Chips to the Gay Side of the Table

Dems Pushing Their Chips to the Gay Side of the Table September 5, 2012

This is in my front yard.

After years of trying to have it both way with LGBT voters — “We support you, but we can’t do it publicly because we’ll never win if we say it out loud” — it seems that the Democrats are going all in on the pro-LGBT vote. Last night was a coming out party of sorts for the DNC:

If there’s one group in the Democratic coalition that can definitely say the past four years have improved its lot, it’s LGBT voters, whose mood was triumphant at the start of the convention. Beyond the affirmation of marriage equality, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Obama White House has made a host of executive changes on everything from providing benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees to lifting the travel and immigration ban for people with HIV.

“I remember us being good Democrats … and the party telling us, not yet. Right?” Randi Weingarten, the openly gay president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd as they murmured in agreement. “Well, ‘yet’ has come!” she said to roaring applause.

This is just another sign that the tipping point has been reached. And it is yet again up to congregations and denominations and plain old Christians to decide whether they want to be on the right side or the wrong side of history.


Browse Our Archives