Gays and Conservatism

American conservatism, as it has remade itself over the past couple of generations, is hardly recognizable as anything I recognize as "conservative." Obviously, I'm not in sympathy with the neo-right's view of social issues, particularly those relating to gay civil rights: that, to me, demonstrates more than anything else that conservatism in this country has been hijacked by religious extremists. (Sorry, boys and girls, but the governing document of this country is not the Old Testament, or rather, your take on it.)

So I found the reactions of the attendees at CPAC very interesting. First, of course, is the fact that Ryan Sorba, leader of the California Young Americans for Freedom and wild-eyed anti-gay loon, got booed.



The Cato Institute hosted a panel titled "Is There a Place for Gay People in Conservatism and Conservative Politics?" with Nick Herbert, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Conservative Party, United Kingdom; Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish Blog, The Atlantic; and Maggie Gallagher, President, National Organization for Marriage. There's a video at the link, but it's long -- over an hour. Gods know what Maggie Gallagher was doing there, but there she was.

I'm not going to post my own reaction because I haven't watched the complete video, but there are some interesting takes out there. Jason Kuznicki seems to have summed it up pretty nicely at Positive Liberty, noting Gallagher's response to his question "How am I supposed to live my life?" Her answer: "I don't know."

She certainly doesn’t, and that’s the whole problem with gay conservatism — there’s hardly a life to be lived within it. There’s no breathing room. Until social conservatives offer us a better answer than “I don’t know,” until they offer us a way to be gay, and conservative, and respectable in their eyes, they’re not going to find many gay conservatives.

There's actually a bigger problem with conservatism implicit in that answer, not only relevant to gays: they don't know. Conservatism as it's presently constituted has nothing to offer.