Op-Ed :: GLAAD + Log Cabin Republicans = Major Hypocrisy

Op-Ed :: GLAAD + Log Cabin Republicans = Major Hypocrisy
by Michael Volpatt
EDGE Contributor
Wednesday Oct 15, 2008

For the last ten years of my life I’ve moved back and forth from San Francisco to New York, and have had the chance to interact with all sorts of people. As a small business owner who works ’virtually,’ I make my own schedule and live where I want to live, which is why I chose San Francisco as my home base.

When I moved back to San Francisco three years ago I was invited to have dinner with a group of new friends. During dinner the discussion turned to politics and one of the guests, named Scott, began to talk about his support for the Republican Party. Mind you, Scott is gay, and when I heard that he supported the Bush administration- and therefore their discriminatory policies- my blood began to boil.

Since then, every time I see Scott, I make it a point to ask him whether he’s changed his thinking to be in line with a party that openly supports the gay community, rather than the party that works actively to repress us. In person and via email I’ve tried to explain the fact (and it is a fact) that our rights as gay men and women (not to mention other rights, including Roe vs. Wade among others) will be challenged if the three supreme court justice nominations that will likely come up in the next election swing to the conservative side of the coin.

Sadly, Scott has no interest in hearing me, nor can he even explain why he chooses to vote for the very people that work to keep us down.

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine told me that Scott is currently serving as one of the co-chairs for the GLAAD San Francisco Media Awards set for May 2009. According to my friend, Scott told him that Neil Giuliano, the executive director of GLAAD and a fellow Log Cabin Republican, asked him to participate.

"Wait," I said to my friend. "How can an organization that focuses on media advocacy for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of the LGBT community hire a Log Cabin Republican to lobby for fair treatment when the very people they are supporting, voting for, and helping to elect are actively working to maintain- and increase- discrimination of our community?"

When I queried GLAAD on this, their response included the following:

He [Neil Giuliano] has given time, support, and significant financial contributions to many other LGBT activist causes, most recently the Vote NO on Prop 8 in CA and Vote NO AGAIN on Prop 102 in AZ. He is not engaged in any way in the presidential campaign, and has not been involved in presidential politics since the primary season of 2000. His financial contributions in this cycle, all public record, are to US Representative Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), US Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), US Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) and congressional candidates Bob Lord (D-AZ), and Linda Ketner (D-SC). As a former non-partisan elected official in AZ, he has been praised and appreciated by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (D).

Basically, in GLAAD’s eyes it’s okay to be republican and gay if you throw money at the democrats and support the issues that concern us. Excuse me? That makes no sense at all.

I question the decision making of gay Republicans who are charged with "ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation" (direct from the GLAAD Web site). Although GLAAD is an organization focused on the media, as someone with reasonable intelligence I know that political decisions greatly affect the way we as a community are portrayed in the media.

Scott has also communicated a similar message to me regarding his volunteer work. In fact, I think he, Neil, and GLAAD’s PR person likely spent hours crafting the email response to my inquiry. Somehow they think that by volunteering and donating to causes in our community gives them a Log Cabin Republican hall pass.

In my opinion, it does not.

As a community, we have a responsibility to support one another, and not root for the team whose members (at their most generous) could care less about our rights. We should call into question the leaders of LGBT advocacy organizations who choose to vote republican. If GLAAD’s goal is to "...choose staff members, and recruit board members who are the most qualified and share our passion and commitment to changing hearts and minds and ending homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation" (a quote from the email I received, accent added) then isn’t it counterproductive to hire someone whose republican vote supports long-standing and active discrimination against gay men and women?

I personally will not support an organization whose leaders’ political affiliations are in direct conflict with the jobs they set out to, do and I believe that a number of people would agree with me on this.

Scott, Neil, and all of you Log Cabin Republicans out there, when you vote in November know that your republican vote supports Sara Palin’s decision to NOT recognize National Coming Out Day in Alaska. Remember that McCain voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation, voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage and voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that these people do not like us, do not really like you, and they only wish to make your hard work even more difficult.

Editor’s Note :: I couldn’t agree more with this Op-Ed. In fact, in discussing this feature with the author I made sure that Mr. Volpatt knew my personal opinion- that any member of the LGBT community who calls him or herself a Republican is either mentally ill or has yet to recover from intense repression suffered in childhood. As many Log Cabin Republicans are certainly intelligent, in my opinion their inability to recognize the hypocrisy of their choices can only be the result of extreme internalized homophobia or confusion.

Furthermore, the idea that groups such as GLAAD would not only accept, but promote these people in their ranks is the equivelent of the NAACP being run by a white supremacist or a Neo-Nazi at the head of the American Jewish Congress.

I strongly urge EDGE readers to write to GLAAD to let them know your opinion- whether you agree with me or not. You can send an email via GLAAD’s website, or to a member of their staff using the person’s last name in following format: lastname@GLAAD.org (For example, Giuliano@GLAAD.org or ferraro@glaad.org -Richard Ferraro is the Director of Public Relations.)

-Jason Salzenstein, Senior Editor

This recipe was created by Michael Volpatt, freelance writer, foodie and editor of RecipePhile. Logon to www.recipephile.org for more great recipes, and be sure to sign up for his newsletter.