A queer former Republican state lawmaker is claiming that the GOP “lied” to her because the party made her think that it supported LGBTQ rights when, in reality, it does not.
Out former New Hampshire state Rep. Yvonne Bailey (R) wrote a column for The Daily Beast where she claimed that the GOP was moving towards LGBTQ acceptance – as signified with the election of Donald Trump in 2016 – but is now regressing.
“I became more assured that Republicans had embraced gay marriage in 2016 when Donald Trump held a pride flag on the campaign trail,” she wrote. “This was something that no GOP presidential candidate had done before… ever.”
She said that “that support appeared to be even stronger during President Trump’s reelection campaign,” despite the Trump administration’s numerous attacks on LGBTQ rights, including allowing adoption agencies that get government funding to refuse to work with same-sex couples, banning transgender people from the military, and arguing in court multiple times that religious freedom means allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
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On the other hand, Bailey argues, out podcaster Dave Rubin has a following on the right, so homophobia was over. She even said that as late as “in 2020” support for LGBTQ rights was stronger than ever, even though state Republican lawmakers were already starting to try to ban transgender kids from participating in school sports by then.
Now, Bailey wrote, things are different.
“Now, not even two years later, the right has started an all-out anti-gay panic that seriously threatens marriage equality,” she wrote, referring in part to how a majority of House Republicans voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the federal government’s recognition of marriage equality.
“Conservatives are hurling insults at innocent gays online,” she continued. “The majority of House Republicans voted against codifying gay marriage at the federal level. Supporters of marriage equality have been accused by Republican candidates of ‘sexualizing kindergarteners’ and being ‘groomers.'”
“What happened over the last decade? Is it no longer politically convenient to be pro-equality?”
She pointed out that mainstream conservatives attack gay parents like Rubin and the Buttigieges, saying that gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to raise children.
While it’s hard to argue that Republicans are anti-LGBTQ as the midterms approach, people online had trouble buying Bailey’s argument that there ever was a time that the GOP was pro-LGBTQ.
no they fucking didn’t pic.twitter.com/peiCiOhhVq
— Zackin’ It™️ (@zachary_allard) July 30, 2022
Same energy… https://t.co/7jnMNTk7Kq
— R.A.G.E Free zone (@Paul_Sebert) August 1, 2022
For this queer conservative. Also for anyone other than straight, white, rich, Christian menhttps://t.co/cpZbHgZeWz
— WhoMe? (@VoteNov2022) July 31, 2022
— pissboi (@PizzafaceJake) July 31, 2022
They don’t understand their identity itself is what the right has a problem with, not how vocal they are about it. They trick themselves into thinking their whiteness and their “normality” cancels out homophobia rather than accepting that they will always be targets 2/2
— TotallyNotAnOccultist (@Le_Sad_Demiurge) July 31, 2022
For real. George W. Bush literally ran for his second term on amending the Constitution so that the only legal marriage was straight marriage, but sure they pulled the wool over your eyes?
— jessica (@simonlcupcake) July 30, 2022
— Cat the Raven Queen (@CatForRealz) August 1, 2022
