Gay Presidents
by Brian Pierce • Aug 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm • 3 comments
Zogby finds that over 60% of Americans could support an openly gay presidential candidate, and 70% could support an openly gay cabinet secretary. I am truly fascinated by the 10% of the population that said, “A gay cabinet secretary? Yeah, sure. But a gay president? No way!” You either hate us or you don’t, folks, get with it.
Comment by kofi the this is the first non-partisan, not-lame post in weeks and i applaud it on 22 August 2008 at 9:12 pm:
Not that I understand the reasoning, but is it much different than the conservatives who are telling McCain that they will not vore for him if Lieberman if the VP while saying he would make a fine Secretary of State? I have not seen raw numbers but the disparity between President/VP and cabinet may be even greater when it comes to the individuals stance on life/abortion rights.
Comment by tet on 22 August 2008 at 10:17 pm:
Has nothing to do with hate–stop equating the two. I think most women would make lousy Presidents, but that doesn’t mean I’m a misogynist.
Tom
Comment by thetodd on 23 August 2008 at 4:54 am:
I could support an openly gay candidate for any political position I can currently imagine, but I could also understand what some of those 10% might be feeling. As the visibility of a position increases, the amount of distraction and productivity loss caused by any behavior or appearance that deviates from the norm also increases.
Unfortunately, for the president position, being openly gay would probably still be a much larger distraction than, say, Obama’s blackness or Hillary’s femaleness. As time passes, I expect gays will continue to gain acceptance, and I expect this 10% gap to shrink.