'Is there room in the Democratic Party for Gays?'
By Robert Klein Engler (10/29/06)
CHICAGO (28 October '06)--Recent events in the developing Foleygate scandal and the midterm elections leave many gay men scratching there heads. They are asking, "Is there room in the Democratic Party for us?"
Imagine there is a gay man who runs a hair salon. His shop is a few doors from the gay couple who own an antique store. They all are worried that the Democrats will raise their taxes. They are wondering, too, why there is no longer room for their views about lower taxes in the political party that supposedly champions gay rights.
Then imagine there is the gay, middle aged man living alone in a downtown condo. He's a Roman Catholic. He doesn't want to adopt children, but has reasoned that abortion is wrong. He wonders why his view is never given room in the Democratic Party, either.
In a nearby suburb, a young football coach prefers to be in the closet. He is more interested in having his team win the state high school championship then he is in making his sexual orientation an issue. Why do the Democrats want to force him out of the closet for political advantage, he wonders?
The gay student at the local community college doesn't know much about politics. He reads assigned books in his classes about the gender wars, but understands little of what he reads. He does not want to live a life of theory, nor does he want to be classified as a victim. He just wants a boyfriend, a good job and a new car. If his thoughts ever turn political, then he would learn also that there is little room these days for him in the Democratic Party.
At the state university, there is a gay college professor who realizes that a campaign for gay marriage is a political mistake and a theological error. Because some radical Democratic operatives claim that anyone who is against gay marriage is "Working against the interests of gays everywhere," this professor realizes there is little room for him in the Democratic Party, either.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Democratic operatives, who demand allegiance to a very narrow definition of what it means to be gay, may be the real cause why many gay men scratch their head and wonder why they have been excluded from the Democratic Party. These very same operatives may have known also about the alleged excesses of Congressman Mark Foley months, even years, before a record of them was released to ABC News.
One blogger describes the Foleygate affair this way: "Radical Gay Rights Activists held on to information about Representative Foley for months and years...They did their own investigation on Foley...They shared this information with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee...They wrote about how they would break the story at midterm elections."
Few people keep a record of their Internet Instant Messages for five or even three years. Someone thought it important to do so with Congressman Mark Foley's IMs, however. Then, we have to ask how these IMs got into the hands of Democratic operatives?
In answering this question, TheAbsurdReport.com claims, "Start out with a teenage prank by Congressional page Jordan Edmund who bated Congressman Mark Foley in sexual predatory e-mails and IMs and then shares them with his page buddies. These e-mails and IMs get into the hands of another page...whose mother is...a Democratic activist in Los Altos Hills...and guess who was (his) sponsor to the Congressional page program in Washington?...Nancy Pelosi."
It seems from these disclosures that some Democrats hope to turn Mark Foley into a pedophile, even though there is no evidence yet that Foley broke any laws or had a sexual encounter with anyone who was underage. Nevertheless, gay rights activists and Democratic Party operatives have no qualms about using the "P" word when it suits their purposes. Republican commentator Mary Mostert is correct when she writes, "So whatever took place was speech, not sex." Foleygate is not about protecting children. It is simply about gaining political power.
It is this unscrupulous quest for political power that turns many moderate gays farther away from the Democratic Party. "What self-respecting gay man wants to belong to a political party capable of such deception?" some gay men are now asking themselves. As one gay political watcher commented about Mike Rogers and those who make it a point to out politicians who are in the closet, "If you're not gay their way, then you gotta pay."
The Foleygate scandal demonstrates to many gays that there is really little room for them in the Democratic Party. The Democrats claim they want to dampen the fires of homophobia, yet they think nothing of tossing Mark Foley on that fire, and then using copies of his e-mails to fan the flames. These Democrats will use gays for political gain just like they use other minorities. Let's hope on November 7th it is proven again that if you play with fire you will get burnt.
Robert Klein Engler
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