According to Star Parker, “gay conservative” is an oxymoron. I agree – but not for the same reasons she outlines in a new article explaining her decision to skip this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Parker, a former welfare mother and failed congressional candidate from California who said she “became conservative in church,” writes that “gay is everything conservative is not.”
It’s a worldview that is man-centered rather than God-centered. It is a worldview that rejects eternal truths passed on from the beginning of time. Although the worldview that “gay conservatives” choose to invent may diverge from the worldview of liberals, their common ground is they make it all up.
And it is here where “gay conservatives” and “liberals” fundamentally depart from conservatives.
Conservatives believe that there are objective and eternal truths, not of the product of any individual human mind, that are transmitted through the generations. Culture is not like HDTV or iPhones where the newest model is the best.
I don’t intend to stick up for gay conservatives. I’ve always been dubious about gay people who call themselves conservative – especially those like GOProud members – who hew to the kind of conservatism currently being espoused by the Republican party and CPAC attendees. I certainly know, and respect, plenty of Goldwater-style conservative gay people, but they are a rare breed these days.
The picture Parker paints of gays and lesbians – conservative or otherwise – is the old canard of God versus gays. Our worldview, she says is “man-centered rather than God-centered.” As someone who became liberal in church, I take issue with that statement. As a woman who is Christian, lesbian, and liberal (much akin to a unicorn in Parker’s world), I have an amazingly God-centered worldview, and so do many gays and lesbians I know.
I also agree with Parker when she says that “a value-neutral government is impossible.” Indeed, it is. Parker, however, in her haste to vilify gays and lesbians, has exposed her values to be the “everyone for themselves” policies espoused by her fellow conservatives.
Liberalism is about fairness, it is about the common good, it is about a rising tide that lifts all boats, not just the top 1 percent who can afford the biggest yacht. That’s a worldview even Jesus could find a reason to feel gay about.
