In a world where politicians are constantly trying (and often succeeding) to strip LGBTQ+ people of their rights, it is mind-boggling that queer Republicans exist, but they do. There are Log Cabin Republicans and LGBTQ+ MAGA zealots out there supporting the GOP and then are shocked when they find out that the party they’ve worshiped at the alter of is actually homophobic and transphobic—as if that hasn’t always been the case!
Although queer Republicans are maddening, we're choosing to find catharsis—or at least a few giggles—in people supporting the party of hate and then getting burned. I mean, it’s either laugh or cry at this point, folks. From podcasters to disgraced politicians to celebrities, here are the Republicans who voted against their self-interest and then were big mad when they faced the consequences.
Lindsey Graham
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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham — who has spent his career “defending traditional marriage” and fighting to stop the LGBTQ+ community from gaining equal rights — got his feelings hurt when he spoke out against fellow MAGA supporter and far-right provocateur Laura Loomer, and she responded by calling him gay. To be clear, despite years-long rumors that Graham is a “confirmed bachelor,” he has only ever identified as straight, but that didn’t stop Loomer from taking to X to say, “We all know you’re Gay, Lindsey” and for Donald Trump to essentially disown Graham after he dared to criticize Loomer for being racist, the Huffington Post reports.
Young Republican finds out that the party is full of White Supremacists
Black gay conservative media personality Rob Smith was shocked when he was surrounded by young white men shouting homophobic and racist slurs at him while he was attending the far-right event AmericaFast. Even after being verbally assaulted by his fellow MAGA supporters, Smith went on CNN to explain that he still supports the GOP and Trump. He decided to f*ck around and find out and learned zero lessons.
Caitlyn Jenner is a hypocrite — what else is new?
Trans reality tv star Caitlyn Jenner is constantly spouting her regressive beleifs about the trans community and then was angry when she discovered the MAGA president she's been supporting was transphobic."The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this president," she wrote in a column for the Washington Post. Jenner may be 74 years old, but she's acting brand new.
Karma smacks hateful preacher
Tony Perkins, president of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council, preached that natural disasters are God's way of punishing homosexuality, then a flood destroyed his home, reported The Independent. Do you think we should tell him?
Gay conservative mistakenly believes Republicans care about her
In 2016, Rachel Hoff was the first openly gay Republican to serve on her party’s platform committee, which laid out the Republican platform for the next few years. And even though her colleagues kept shooting down all of her suggestions around LGBTQ+ inclusivity and equal marriage rights, she is still a staunch Republican, even working for the Ronald Reagan Institute today.
Get a clue!
In a 2012 Time interview, she said that the LGBTQ+ community has been more hurtful to her than Republicans. "I can’t think of a single time where anybody has said anything mean to my face, other than not supporting my constitutional rights. Clearly, that’s offensive to me in a different way," she said, seemingly oblivious to how ridiculous she sounded.
The lying gay congressman is shocked that a fellow Republican lied
Disgraced former congressman George Santos initially supported Ron DeSantis' bid for president and the "Don't Say Gay" bill but then felt duped after DeSantis' team released a homophobic campaign ad. “I still stand by the bill in its nature, but now it seems it had a more perverse agenda behind it. I’m starting to see [DeSantis] for what he is. His rhetoric is to diminish and remove rights away from people like myself, and I can’t support that," reported The Hill.
Are you brand new? Of course, that's what DeSantis was doing! It's not like he was even trying to hide his villainy!
Log Cabin Republicans surprised conservative Texans hate gay people
Our statement on @TexasGOP excluding @LogCabinTexas from the convention:
— Log Cabin Republicans (@LogCabinGOP) June 17, 2022
"Inclusion wins, which makes the Texas Republican Party leadership’s decision to exclude the Texas Log Cabin Republicans from their convention not just narrow-minded, but politically short-sighted." pic.twitter.com/vp1UAZJZtn
Log Cabin Republicans in Texas have spent decades fighting to get other Republicans to agree that LGBTQ+ people deserve rights. Still, it turns out that leopards don't change their spots no matter how many times they vote against their interests. In 2022, the Texas Republican Party banned the Log Cabin Republicans from setting up a booth at their convention, Vice reported.
And yet, somehow, they still want to be part of the GOP, even going so far as to say that it “made clear that LGBT conservatives are welcome in the America First movement and the Republican Party" in a statement about being banned. No matter what the Republican Party does to them, they'll keep taking it. Get a clue!
Gay Republican podcaster blames the Left for the GOP's transphobia
Gay Republican podcaster Brad Polumbo wishes queer politics could be like it was a few years ago because, apparently, he thinks things were better for LGBTQ+ people under Trump—how he reached this conclusion (or delusion) is anyone's guess. He lays the blame for the backslide toward more anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in this country at the feet of Democrats because the "trans debate has gotten so out of control on both sides," he shared with the New York Times. "And it has engendered this vicious backlash that, in my view, stems from a lot of overreach on the left-wing side of the debate but now is causing an equal and oppositely extreme backlash and reaction on the right, which is catching up to gay rights."
So now the left is to blame for Republicans getting more conservative and transphobic? What is happening? Am I in Bizarro World?!