Charles Moran is proud to be gay and proud to be a Republican.
For some, the combination is an inherent contradiction, whether you’re a meat-eating vegetarian, a violent pacifist, or a Dodgers-loving San Francisco Giants fan.
In recent months, conservative extremists have declared war on the LGBTQ+ community, waging skirmishes on social media, on school campuses and in the aisles of Target stores in friendly neighborhoods.
Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country as part of the Pink Scare, which aims to provoke Republican constituencies for political and economic gain.
But Moran argues that there is a middle ground, even if you have to squint to see it through the escalating Smoking Culture Wars.
“I don’t want to see my movement, the gay movement, hijacked by far-left cultural Marxists,” he said. “And I don’t want the anti-gay forces that still exist within the social conservative movement to hijack the Republican progress I’ve contributed.”
These words are sure to antagonize people from all walks of life, and they reflect the strange and uncomfortable position of the Log Cabin Republican Party, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group within the Republican Party. The group is headquartered in Washington and claims more than 10,000 members nationwide. Moran, 42, who was born and raised in San Pedro, will serve as president.
The club has long faced hostility from its supposed political kin – “perverted” is one of the kinder adjectives thrown at its members – and today the atmosphere is anything but welcoming. isn’t it.
But Moran sees nothing contradicting his political allegiance. He suggested that just because he’s gay doesn’t necessarily make him a Democrat, and that supporting Republican policies to some extent doesn’t automatically mean he’s homophobic.
“There are a lot of gay conservatives who are horrified by the way the Republican Party is doing,” he said. “There are many conservative gays who are horrified by the way large LGBT organizations operate.”
Guardrails are needed to prevent both sides from getting into dangerous situations, he continued. In other words, Moran suggested that compromises and agreements were needed somewhere in the vague gray area between white and black.
“Over the last 20, 30 years, we’ve had a great movement for gay inclusion and normalizing ourselves and our families,” he said. “I don’t want to see that situation recede, so I want to have principles about how I respond to things instead of overreacting.”
On a mild, unseasonably spring day in a verdant setting a few miles from the Capitol, Moran recounts his happy Southern California upbringing. In it, she had none of the cruelty and hatred that others have experienced simply because she is. He came out while attending Occidental College.
Dad was a firefighter. Her mom was a flight attendant. Both were Republicans, but were not politically active.
Moran was drawn to the Republican Party from an early age because he believed it took a more bottom-up approach to society and its problems. “Individuals, families, communities, cities, states, nations,” he explained. “Not the other way around.”
Naturally, he does not agree with everyone in the party.
Moran rejects the climate change denialism that many cold-hearted Republicans espouse. He likes a lot of what Democrats are saying about education and respect for workers.
“I am by no means a zero-sum voter, nor am I a single-issue voter,” he said. “I think single-issue voting is really dangerous in a democracy.”
But it is one issue of LGBTQ+ rights that pits Mr. Moran against the rake-wielding Republican forces and those pushing a political agenda he believes “anything goes” or “should be allowed.”
He said it’s not anti-LGBTQ+ to think children should wait until at least 16 to transition.
Deferring classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity until at least sixth grade is not prejudice, he said.
He said it was not homophobic to think that sexually explicit drag performances should be restricted to adult audiences.
“Guess what? We regulate NC-17 movies,” Moran said, referring to ratings intended to restrict certain content to adult audiences. “What’s the difference?”
Of course, some Republicans won’t be satisfied until all the transsexuals are gone and all members of the LGBTQ+ community are pushed back into their closets and locked up.
It’s not just about “protecting” children, as they claim.
Republican Party of Missouri Governor signs bill This would prohibit gender-affirming care for some adults. Other Republican-led states are also considering ways to limit health care for transgender adults.
The Florida Board of Education helped Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Republican presidential résumé be windowpane, extending restrictions on sexual orientation and gender instruction through 12th grade.
Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have passed the first law to severely limit drug performance. (it was thrown out by a judge Moran pointed out that he was appointed by President Trump. )
Once governments start targeting specific groups, the slopes can get very slippery.
Many rainbow flags and Pride Month buntings blossomed from windows and storefronts in Moran’s leafy northwest Washington neighborhood, creating an atmosphere as bright and cheery as bright dogwoods and glossy azalea bushes. .
Is he worried that a change in the political climate, or something other than a quarter of resistance, will undermine decades of hard work by the LGBTQ+ community?
Moran is not.
“LGBT people are everywhere in society,” he said. “We belong to all parties. We are all races. We are all religions… I think as a society we are beyond that.”
However, some people don’t try to turn back the clock.
