== The Republican who likes gays = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Behold, an extraordinary event, the most astonishing speech you will hear all year

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/09/26/notes092607.DTL&nl=fix

It was one of those surreal, suspended moments, an unexpected little hiccup in the otherwise bleak sociopolitical continuum where you couldn't help but pause and gasp and sit back and let your bitter cynicism and your hard-won ennui fall away and actually allow yourself, for now, just this once, really and truly believe what you were seeing.

Could it really be happening? Was there really any way in hell a straight white male BushCo-era Republican would dare step up to a live microphone in front of a TV camera in a major American city and honestly admit that, well, he was wrong, and he is very sorry, and he has now officially reversed his position and now fully supports gay marriage and will actually sign a city council resolution acknowledging and advocating same?

And furthermore could this politician, during said cynicism-defying announcement, actually choke back tears -- real, human tears, not the fake, creepy kind you see from, say, Ted Haggard or Larry Craig or Lynne Cheney after four martinis and an hour staring at her husband -- such a genuine display of emotion that you can't help but think it might actually be coupled to a living, breathing human soul?

Yes, it happened. Just recently, down in San Diego. Jerry Sanders is the politico, and he's apparently very much a (moderate) Republican mayor and a former police chief, and he apparently has a gay daughter no one really knew was gay and members of his mayoral staff are also gay and somehow, some way, both these facts played into his decision to reverse his position on gay marriage and go public in what has to be one of the most honest, humble and heartfelt public displays of ideological evolution by a Republican since ... well, I can't even think of any. Can you? ...

[LeftishBrit]

1. Well, good for him!

I wish a few others would do the same. But they won't (even those who have gay family members) - it would interfere with pandering to the fundies.

I remember that James Dobson called right-wing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy 'one of the most dangerous people in America' and said that he should be impeached. Because he helped to subvert democracy and inflict Bush on the world in 2000? No. Because he opposed laws that could send people to prison for 'sodomy' *in their own homes*.

[liberal N proud]

2. Doesn't San Diego have a growing gay community?

If true, it is necessary for any candidate to recognize his constituency and support them. Or so I would think.

[silverweb]

3. A wonderful column.

I worked against Sanders in the mayoral election, but I'm delighted that he's taken this step. I hadn't seen the _video_ of his speech before this and I was very touched by his obvious soul searching and sincerity. I hope he stands strong against the RW backlash.

My favorite part of Morford's commentary was this:

Is it not curious that, on the rare instances such a personal breakthrough occurs in a public political figure, it's most often in the favor of a progressive idea, a humanistic switch away from cultural conservatism?

That is to say, is it not interesting that you almost never hear a Democrat or a liberal step up to a microphone and choke back tears and say, "My people, I have been all wrong about, say, the death penalty (or gun control, or women's rights), and after searching my heart and following my intuition and seeking inspiration from my loving family, I now have reversed my position. I wish to wholly support killing prisoners. What's more, I now support torture, and will vote for the unprovoked bombing of Iran and I just signed a decree that everyone must get a large handgun and by the way it turns out sex really is deeply scary and we cannot let women have such control over their bodies and therefore I no longer support condoms or RU-486 or low-rise jeans in public. Thank you."

Truly, Sanders seems to follow a wondrous, though not often noticed, law of humanistic expansion. It goes something like this: When you find your heart, when you look to your own family and your own life and your own soul for the answers and go beyond the limitations of your political handbook and disregard the bitter decrees force-fed to you by some dogmatic religion or belief system, well, chances are just incredibly good you will emerge a tiny bit more progressive or liberal or open-minded than before. Is that not fascinating?

Indeed! And this is what keeps me hopeful for our country and our world.