Oh, Those Pesky Gays!

Last night, C-SM reported on how the French and Russian Communist parties have split because the Rusky Commies threw some hard fists at limp wrists in a Moscow gay pride parade.

This morning, the fight has come home, with gays mad at the Dems for the Party's position on gay marriage.

The SF Chronicle, the, er, chronicle of gay politics because of its location, reports today that last week's Senate debate on gay marriage didn't go well for gays, despite the proposal's defeat. DiFi, for example, defended states' rights in her speech, not gay marriage. Babs Boxer spoke of what the Senate should be dealing with instead of gay marriage.

And the ubber Bay-area Lib doesn't even support gay marriage; she's a civil unions gal.

Bad enough for the gays. But what made them return a $5,000 check from the DNC? Says the Chron:

"We are disappointed that more senators could not take an affirmative stand for gay and lesbian Americans," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The national task force returned a $5,000 donation from the Democratic National Committee after party leader Howard Dean, appearing on the ultraconservative "700 Club" television show, said the party believes marriage should be only between a man and a woman -- even though the party's platform states that gay and lesbian families should have equal "benefits, responsibilities and protections" and that marriage should be a state issue.

Dean quickly apologized for his misstatement, but not before he was blasted by gay rights organizations who called his record on gay issues as party leader "sorely and sadly lacking." The apology mollified the organizations, but the relationship has not mended.

The gays want pro-gay action; the Dems are shying away, seeing state after state voting by 60 and even 70 percent margins that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

So, as the multi-decade pandering by the Dems to win the gay vote is starting to crumble, Dean finds himself courting conservative Christian votes. This despite the Party's continuing failure to find its position on That Confusing Morality Thing, as C-SM chronicled endlessly after the 2004 election. (Here and here for example)

Alienating the gays is not so much a vote problem for the Dems, because the gays would not migrate in droves to the GOP; it's more fundamental.

The Dems' penchant for deciding which side they're on based on emotions has once again come home to roost. By freely advocating the gay agenda without thinking of where the feel-good advocacy would lead them, they're finding themselves on the unpopular side of an increasingly important issue. As with religious freedom. As with abortion.

Pelosi, Reid & Company are faced with the difficult decision of whether to abandon their more liberal social positions for votes, at a cost to their ballyhooed integrity, or whether to stick to their principles, at a cost of votes.

Poor babies.

hat-tip: FlashReport
Related Tags: Democrats, Gays, Politics, Boxer, Feinstein, Dean, Pelosi