Thoughts on today’s gay rights march in Washington

Gay rights is another area that I tend to not hang with my Republican brethren. I don’t believe that gay, lesbian or transgendered people choose to be gay, lesbian or transgendered. Seriously, why would a person choose to be homosexual? It is what they are, it is in their wiring it is in their brain.

I have no problem with gay people serving in the military—as long as they serve, and not recruit. And to be honest with you, the homosexual people I know don’t run around recruiting—but I am sure they are out there (look at the current administration’s “Safe Schools” czar’s past actions. It would not surprise me that he was pushing an agenda on kids, he’s not going to make a kid who is wired to be homosexual homosexual any faster, but he sure could be in a position to take advantage of a non-wired kid who has a bad home life, further messing that kid up). The schools are not the place to teach children that there are people who are homosexual, that they are good people, they are not dangerous, and they deserve to be treated the same as any heterosexual person—no job discrimination. Acceptance and understanding starts at home—except for most kids it doesn’t.

I’m even okay with committed homosexual couples forming civil unions. Sorry but the Catholic school girl in me still says marriage is a hetero thing, set up for people to be monogamous and raise a family. I know that’s old-fashioned and that homosexual couples raise families, it’s just my hang-up.

I do object to the president giving lip service to this group, refusing to put a date on when he’ll take up “don’t ask don’t tell,” and other issues important to homosexuals. Why does this group think anything is going to be done by this current president?? He’s already worried about his re-election—he’s not going to alienate blacks and Hispanics who think that Prop 8 was the way to go.

But I also believe that homosexuals do deserve exactly the same rights as heterosexual people—and I mean exactly. Instead, the government wants to put them in the same “protected” category as minorities, and I object to that. This places a specific group of people to be of more value in the law’s eye. Hate crime legislation should not apply to any group (hate crime legislation should not apply to anyone—unless it works both ways. Right now it’s a hate crime if a white person kills a black person, but not if a black person kills a white one or a Hispanic one kills a black).

Personally I wish the Republican party would take a lesson from the Libertarians and just decide certain things aren’t worth fighting about. If homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God, we will all face his justice someday, just like in the case of abortion. There are certain things government is supposed to do—maintain and train a competent military, maintain vital infrastructure such as highways and railways, provide police protection. If I have learned nothing else, you cannot legislate what you perceive as morality. So why waste the effort?

Scared Moderate Female: The concerns of a middle-aged underemployed moderate Republican female

I figured it best to wait a couple of days after Tuesday's election to start this blog, just to make sure this wasn't some sort of knee-jerk reaction to what happened in the United States on November 4, 2008. 

Yes, what happened is historic, but in more ways than one would think of at first blush.

I have no problem whatsoever with a black president, but honestly, I figured that person was going to be Colin Powell. Truly a man of integrity, he transcends color and race for me. He was hung out to dry by Bush and his administration and I hate that. Colin Powell is the only reason I voted for Bush in the first place.

I live in a county and city that is heavily populated with democrats—and so many are just blind democrats, spewing party rhetoric just as offensively as ultra-conservative Repubs. When I have discussions with friends about my political beliefs, I have things in common with both parties. I'm pretty much socially liberal but fiscally conservative, and I believe that there are some things government needs to go (highways for example) but things government doesn't need to do (legislate morality).

I'm socially liberal in that I'm pro-choice but not pro-government pays for unlimited abortions and lots of welfare babies! Let gays and lesbians do what they want, as long as heterosexuals have the same rights—that includes insurance benefits to co-habitating couples, just like in a "domestic partnership." My attitude is that God will take care of it Himself someday in His own way... He has given us free will though I am sure He's not too crazy about the idea of humans going to war over in his name.

I'm fiscally conservative in that taxing working men and women to death is no way to go either, and that's what scares me most about Obama. "Spread the wealth" is socialism plain and simple. He should have said "Spread the opportunity." I'm fine with people working hard and reaping the benefits of that hard work. I'm not fine with welfare baby mamas with multiple kids and multiple baby daddies sitting at home waiting for the check to come in the mail. 

I'm for securing the southern U.S. border immediately, but I am realistic enough to know that rounding up every "illegal" isn't feasible or really desirable. I look at this as a huge opportunity to keep the cream of the crop as far as undocumented people are concerned. Send the ones who have been involved in the criminal justice system back where they came from. Even the 14-year-old MS-13 drug runners in San Francisco who have had a field day because of that city's sanctuary city policy.

Automatic U.S. citizenship just because a baby is born here has to stop too, but I don't expect that's going to happen in the next four years. 

I'm a fifth-generation Republican who is different from her father and paternal grandparents in that I don't hate black people with a vengeance like they did. I have worked hard to earn a bachelors and masters degree after suffering a career-ending work-related injury 20 years ago this coming spring. And I remain unemployed and ineligible for social security because I manage to pick up enough non-benefitted contract work so I can pay rent but little else.

I am worried for my future and the future of like-minded individuals who may be in the same place as I am. I'll use this blog to think out loud (sort of!) and four years from now, I hope my pessimism is all for naught.

But I doubt it.