A Letter to Stephen Harper...
Dear Stephen: I sincerely hope that in early January we'll be calling you Mr. Prime Minister. However, I really have to ask to consider ruling out any attempted change to same-sex marriage (SSM). There there are two very good reasons for you to do that.
1. If you and your prospective MPs start raising SSM as an issue, you’ll find Conservative support fall away. There are simply too many prospective voters who will be scared away. These are voters that you need desperately – and many of these voters live in Ontario. And, they aren’t necessarily gay – most of my friends aren’t gay, but they are very much in favour in gay marriage. To them, raising SSM as an issue makes you sound like a bigot – regardless of whether that is true or not - and it makes them wonder what else you might do.
2. Right now, there is a huge attitude change taking place in society towards gay people. Homosexuality is now seen as just totally normal – so much so, that people like Andrew Sullivan are writing articles entitled “The End of Gay Culture”. Same-sex marriage was the last step in that normalization. For most people, it it just irrelevant if you are gay or if you are straight. Isn’t that exactly what you want? Why on earth would you want to change that at all?
I’m hoping you will do the wise thing. Tell the Canadian public that Same-Sex Marriage is off the table for good.
posted by GayandRight @ 11:55 AM
8 Comments:
I don't know why anyone would worry about this. I HIGHLY doubt the CPC could turn back the clock on SSM even with a majority in the House of Commons. And since there is -25% (that's NEGATIVE 25 percent) chance of that happening, there's ABSOLUTELY NO DANGER WHATSOEVER.
Of course, I think there's REALLY no danger since I suspect the next election will end up pretty much like the last one, maybe with a few more NDP and CPC members, but with the Liberals still leading the pack. So breath easy. SSM is safe until the CPC wins a majority, and that's just not going to happen under their current leadership.
I'm a small "c" conservative and regular peruser of the Blogging Tories. I've read your blog with interest -- particularly your posts on Israel and the treatment of Jews, etc.
I'm also an evangelical Christian, which means that, yes, I do believe homosexuality is a sin.
But I believe there's a huge difference between people such as yourself and other gay Canadians. You seem very respectful of religion and of freedom of opinion while other gay Canadians look with hatred at Christians and others who oppose gay marriage. (I personally believe that the government should not even be in the business of marriage in the first place. You may like to read MP James Moore's piece on SSM on his webpage.)
You and others like yourself ought to be welcomed and embraced in the CPC, and your voice respected - and you don't need me to say this for it to be true. Fred, the CPC needs you, and we want you.
I think that Harper's gonna have enough of a problem dealing with the whole "CPC will repeal gay marriage" thing he pushed earlier. If they campaign on it, Harper really WILL look regressive and turn the election into a replay of 2004.
"I personally believe that the government should not even be in the business of marriage in the first place." Most Conservatives I know feel that way.
"You and others like yourself ought to be welcomed and embraced in the CPC, and your voice respected - and you don't need me to say this for it to be true. Fred, the CPC needs you, and we want you."
And the difference is, I'm guessing the CPC'd treat you like an individual instead of a commodity to be collected like a baseball card.
i think this issue should be dropped like a hot potato. The libs can only use it in their SoCon fearmongering in the next month or so.
Even now, paul Martin has started the personal attacks against stephen harper, something harper has always (unfortunately) had the class to avoid doing.
P.S. I'm glad we have someone like you fighting for us. I know it must be hard, especially having to reconcile the party's position on Gay Marriage with your conservative beliefs, but believe you me, we need people like you on our side who will keep the party on the right track. Keep up the great work!
You are in the wrong party.
Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately, there are many people who seem to think that gay people don't belong in the Conservative Party. I put up this letter at the FreeDominion forum...and one of the first responses was for someone to say I should leave the party.
As a gay conservative I have a lot of concerns about whether I would be welcome in the CPC.
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