First openly gay presidential Canidate!!!!!

[BlaqueKatt]

and yes He is a REPUBLICAN!

I really hope he gets the party backing. Though sadly I know there are some people that would look at nothing more than his political affiliation and vote against him(he presents himself as a single issue candidate -- a conservative gay rights activist)

Huffington post

365gay

[guywithashovel]

I seriously doubt he's going to get the party's backing. Fact of the matter is, he is in a party that, for the most part, doesn't support him. Yes, there are some that do, but they are outnumbered by those who are prejudiced.

He would be better off joining another party or running as an independent, IMHO.

It does feel strange that we're seeing serious contenders for the 2012 race, though. To me, it still kind of seems like we just got through the 2008 elections.

[Hyena Dandy]

He won't get the backing he needs, as much as I would love to vote for him. He won't be covered, so he won't get votes. He won't get votes, so he won't be nominated.

Besides. An endorsement from the Huffington Post will not help you win the Republican nomination.

[Hyena Dandy]

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but let's be honest. The media picks the frontrunners as much as the people do. If Fox, CNN, NBC, et al don't treat you like a serious candidate, you will not get elected.

Of course, I don't want to go too far. Clearly, the people have a say too. The media treated Fred Thompson like a shoo-in for nominee in 2008, and he ended up pretty far behind.

I don't think there's some sort of vast conspiracy. They do not intend to be kingmakers. But the way the news works ends up with a spiral. They tell us who's 'electable'. We use that to tell them who we want. They use that to determine who's electable. Which we use to tell them who we want. Its not that they want to do it. They have to focus on what's important. There's no way to give everyone equal time.

What, me double post?

I suppose if some sort of moderatey type wants to merge my posts, I wouldn't object.

[lordlundar]

his chances range from slim to none. One of the questions posed to potential candidates at the RNC is "How would you go about preventing gay people from having the right to legally marry" and other obviously anti-gay rights questions.

[Ghel]

a conservative gay rights activist

Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

[KnitShoni]

Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Not really. There's more to being conservative than your stance on gay rights.

[guywithashovel]

No matter how you want to split the hairs, supporting equality for the GLBT community is a liberal stance. However, if someone supports GLBT, yet is conservative on most everything else, then that person could possibly call themselves conservative.

Thing is, the right here in the US has managed to completely demonize the word "liberal" to the point where people don't want to pin that label on themselves, even if it is the correct way to describe them. For example, I have heard people saying things like "Well, I support gay rights. I'm pro-choice. I also think universal health care is a fairly good idea, but I still call myself conservative because of "x," y," and "z." Actually, no, you're not conservative. You're a flaming liberal.

[Andara Bledin]

The idea of being liberal in this country is so anathema to so many that our far left is barely left of center to the rest of the world.

^-.-^

[BlaqueKatt]

his chances range from slim to none. One of the questions posed to potential candidates at the RNC is "How would you go about preventing gay people from having the right to legally marry" and other obviously anti-gay rights questions.

and do you have any proof of this?

I only ask because McCain was for Gay marriage, and spoke out loudly AGAINST DOMA, so if what you say is true and not made up out of whole cloth, McCain was never a candidate? Funny he was on the ballot as Republican.....

[Hyena Dandy]

Cheney also said that freedom means freedom for everyone in the VP debates in 2000

[Greenday]

Cheney and McCain weren't gay.

[Hyena Dandy]

Cheney and McCain weren't gay.

I think she was replying to lordlundar, which I was adding to.

Though I'm confused, since I didn't know that answering questions at the RNC was part of the vetting process. I figured you were already a vet by then.

Er... Vetted. Whatever.

[Greenday]

I'm just pointing out the difference between Cheney/McCain and Karger that makes the fact that they all believe in equality irrelevant. Maybe some day the Republicans will pick a gay front runner, but that time is not now. Replace his chances of slim to none with just none because that's his realistic chances.

I think it's great that someone wants to run for president so they can finally put a stop to all these bigoted laws making gay people into a lower class. But I wouldn't vote for someone whose only reason they want to be president is to fix that. Being president involves a lot more than dealing with LGBT rights and if the person running only gives a crap about that, I don't want someone in there who doesn't care about the majority of their job.

[FArchivist]

I only ask because McCain was for Gay marriage, and spoke out loudly AGAINST DOMA, so if what you say is true and not made up out of whole cloth, McCain was never a candidate? Funny he was on the ballot as Republican.....

You might want to check your facts. McCain DIDN'T speak out loudly against DOMA. Here's what he actually said:

- In October 2006, McCain said he would consider changing the U.S. military's don't ask, don't tell policy: "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it."

- In December 2007, McCain said he supported the policy, citing reports from military leaders that "this policy ought to be continued because it's working."

- In January 2010, when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen – the top civilian and uniform leadership of the military – came out in favor of repealing the policy, McCain said he was "disappointed" by their stance: "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the Don't ask, don't tell policy," which he described as "imperfect but effective." McCain also criticized Gates for what he saw as an attempt to usurp Congressional authority over the policy.

- He supported the failed 2006 Arizona initiative to ban same-sex marriage and the successful California Proposition 8. He also voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 which barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

- When asked if he supported civil unions for homosexuals, McCain said: "I do not."

- In July 2008, McCain told The New York Times that "I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay adoption."

No, McCain did not speak out loudly against DOMA. In fact, when the military decided to get rid of it, he chastized them. He's also chastized Obama for not enforcing DOMA since. Pro-LGBT rights, McCain ISN'T.

As for Republicans being required to be against gay marriage, yes, they ARE asked that question at every RNC nomination. In fact, here are the relevant passages from the national platforms of the Republican Party for 2008:

Because our children's future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives.

Republicans recognize the importance of having in the home a father and a mother who are married. The two-parent family still provides the best environment of stability, discipline, responsibility, and character. Children in homes without fathers are more likely to commit a crime, drop out of school, become violent, become teen parents, use illegal drugs, become mired in poverty, or have emotional or behavioral problems. We support the courageous efforts of single-parent families to provide a stable home for their children. Children are our nation's most precious resource. We also salute and support the efforts of foster and adoptive families.

Republicans have been at the forefront of protecting traditional marriage laws, both in the states and in Congress. A Republican Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act, affirming the right of states not to recognize same-sex "marriages" licensed in other states. Unbelievably, the Democratic Party has now pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which would subject every state to the redefinition of marriage by a judge without ever allowing the people to vote on the matter. We also urge Congress to use its Article III, Section 2 power to prevent activist federal judges from imposing upon the rest of the nation the judicial activism in Massachusetts and California. We also encourage states to review their marriage and divorce laws in order to strengthen marriage.

As the family is our basic unit of society, we oppose initiatives to erode parental rights.

And guess what? This has been in the National Platform of the Republican Party since 1992. The question is asked at every Republican National Convention. And John McCain, in the 2008 Republican nomination, expressed very clearly that he would adhere to preventing gay marriage from becoming a legal possibility. Whether he meant it or not, I don't care; his record, voting and speaking, shows clearly what he'll do.