Over the past several years, more and more LGBT Americans have come out of a secondary closet and now self-identify as “conservative”. While that sentiment is welcome and refreshing in this progressively woke and Marxist-sympathizing LGBT culture, it is not completely true.
This past summer, I wrote a column on my thoughts about the Monkeypox outbreak among gay men. I made the simple argument that if a virus is spread via sexual intercourse, and one does not wish to contract it, perhaps he should keep his pants on or remain monogamous, at least for a short period of time. My cogent argument was met with malice and contempt, particularly by men who call themselves “conservative”. My shock at the response forced me to reflect on what these people understand conservatism to be.
As someone who has studied and understands the nuance and subtlety of connotation and semantics, allow me to expound upon something we all know to be true. Words have meaning, and the shared acceptance of those meanings are vital to the functioning of a society. In the same vein, a word’s meaning can change over time, and that change is inevitable. However, language change only works when it is incremental and natural. If you force language change, you will be met with hostility and resentment.
The political right has demonstrated this to the left, especially over the past years. The left has redefined “racism”. They have replaced the word “equality” with “equity”. And the religious cult of progressivism has taken those subtly implemented changes and done their best to propagate them into the mainstream. Most of us with a brain capable of thinking through the implications of these changes have rallied against this linguistic infestation. However, I offer a word of caution to those of us on the gay right who are teetering on the edge of hypocrisy.
To be politically and socially conservative means to hold fast to the three tenets of conservatism: support of free enterprise, favoring limited government, and holding socially traditional values. A cursory scroll through the social media feeds of almost any man who calls himself a “gay conservative” will yield a plethora of support for the former two tenents, but the latter one is as foreign to him as vulva. A tweet condemning governmental overreach and Covid mandates follow by a picture of a male clad solely in a jockstrap on his way to a “No Loads Refused Party-n-Play” orgy is a far cry from the misnomer of “conservative”.
True gay conservatives seek to emulate the morals and standards that helped this country thrive: commitment, fidelity, monogamy. We do not fuck everything that moves. We do not cheat on a partner. We do not advertise our nocturnal activities. When gays were fighting for marriage equality, one point of contention that was used against us was our community’s penchant for degeneracy and infidelity. We fought back with the now hackneyed and cringeworthy statement “Love is love”. At the time that statement held water. We wanted to show that we could have that traditional familial love and partnership that any heterosexual couple reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting could have.
Those of you who are sex positive and demonstrate a more socially libertarian lifestyle are absolutely within your rights as an American to do so. It just feels dishonest to call yourselves “conservative”. The Republican party has always billed itself as the “big tent party”, and throughout the recent years with the popularity of President Trump, the Republican party has grown with people who never in their wildest imagination thought they would find themselves there. I welcome and applaud that. We are now the united party of conservatives, populists, nationalists, libertarians, and individualists.
However, I also call it as I see it. President Trump was not and is not particularly conservative, and he never pretended to be. He is exactly what the Republican party and this country need at the present time, and that is precisely why the most conservative sect of this country, the Evangelicals, forgave his reputation and embraced his populist and America-first agenda. Trump helped unite the party again bringing conservatives, libertarians, and anyone else who has not drunk the progressive Koolaid together under one banner fighting for one cause: our beautiful nation and her citizens.
If the gay right wants to be taken seriously and offered a seat at the table within this united Republican party that we have all helped create, we need to come with honesty. This identity crisis that many of us seem to be facing is not helping our cause. Be a populist; be a libertarian; be a conservative—but know the differences. Knowing who you are, what you value, and that America affords you the freedom to be an individual gives you purpose to fight against the already united and remarkably self-aware Democrat party—the party of Marxists, socialists, and collectivists.