Former President Donald Trump infected the Republican Party with his America First agenda, and with that came many new voters. Among them were vocal L.G.B.T.Q. people like Scott Presler and Lady MAGA. However, there exists a significant minority of socially conservative populists who do not want to give these voices a platform in the party. What does the future hold? Will they be invited in or be driven out? Will the socially conservative be alienated and stay at home?
The Debate
In the lead up to CPAC, a minority of socially conservative Christians vocally opposed giving members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community a platform within the Republican Party or at the conference. It sparked a heated debate on Twitter between various populist factions.
Recognizing that this might become an increasingly contentious issue, Conservative pundit Elijah Schaffer hosted a debate on his YouTube channel between four Trump supporters on both sides: Dr. Karlyn Borysenko, a liberal Republican, the conservative trans person, Blaire White, and the Christian populists Lauren Witze and John Doyle.
Borysenko, who recently joined the Republican Party, made a case for a big tent America First movement, arguing that free speech, religious freedom, and liberty are the central issues that Republicans should prioritize. She said that attacking and excluding L.G.B.T.Q. people would only alienate liberal voters like herself.
Doyle and Witze both confused White and Borysenko for social justice warriors and showed that they had entirely accepted the leftist narrative that identifies L.G.B.T.Q. with woke ideology.
In the debate, Witze said to White that “your people” are pushing radical leftism and pushing trans ideology on children. White pushed back that she was vocally opposed to wokism and that trans people are not one community. Instead, leftists have appropriated the “community” as a grievance class – a weapon against capitalism and Western culture. Neither Witze nor Doyle understood this distinction and insisted on using a leftist framework.
Ironically, all four debaters are outspoken opponents of Critical Race Theory and wokism. Borysenko, for instance, has launched a campaign to ban it in the state government of New Hampshire. Yet, they were unable to communicate about their common goals.
The Confusion
The confusion seems to stem from social conservatives chronically falling for leftist propaganda. They seem to believe that L.G.B.T.Q. persons are only interested in issues that focus on their sexuality. However, many conservative activists like Scott Presler, who happens to be gay, have never talked about anything other than America First issues.
Compare and contrast this with the recent uplifting conversation between the orthodox Jew Dennis Prager and the atheist Objectivist Craig Biddle. Biddle vigorously agreed that most atheists are evil collectivists. He would much rather live in a society filled with religious liberty lovers like Prager than in an atheist totalitarian society like the Soviet Union. Prager returned the gesture in kind.
One can easily imagine a similar conciliatory conversation between L.G.B.T.Q. and Christian conservatives. Imagine a conversation where a gay man praises heteronormativity and bashes woke intersectionality as toxic and evil. The conservative Christian reciprocates by saying he would prefer conservative gays over immoral heterosexuals who support intersectionality and identity socialism.
Biddle and Prager were able to unite in a common goal for reason and liberty. One could argue that America First L.G.B.T.Q. people and Christian conservatives should be able to do the same.
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Read more from Caroline Adana.
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