Common Ground for the Right and Gays?

Last weekend offered two prime examples of how the political right’s treatment of gay and lesbian Americans is increasingly incoherent.

As we reported last month, Texas Senator John Cornyn agreed to speak at a September 21 national fundraising event for the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organization of gay Republicans. LCR has been working to overturn the policy barring openly gay and lesbian military servicemembers, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). Cornyn, who is chairman of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, showed up to speak at the LCR event the day after he and fellow Senate Republicans successfully blocked repeal of DADT.

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John Cornyn and Gay Republicans

Here’s something not many folks expected to see: Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn will speak in September at a national fundraiser for Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay GOP members.

John Cornyn? The same guy who opposes same-sex marriage and the repeal of the ban on gay and lesbian members in the military? Yeah, same guy. Also the same guy who said this a few years ago in support of a federal constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage:

“It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.”