Republican Senator Paul Koering is gay

I've been busy lately, which is why I haven't posted on as many issues as I'd like to, but this one is pretty significant: First-term Republican Senator Paul Koering told the Star Tribune today that he is gay. This is a very difficult thing for any public official to do, and it is all the more difficult for a Republican from a conservative district to do so. I'm glad that he did, though, and I hope that he feels relieved at not having to live a fake life anymore.

Of course, this revelation is going to affect the debate on the anti-gay marriage amendment. Senator Koering still supports it.....and I don't know what to say about that. First, I don't think that there is any reason why a gay person can be a conservative. Taxes, national defense, social spending, regulations, all of those things are pretty much orthogonal to sexuality (as well as race). But today's Republican party is by no means conservative. It is a party of gaining power for its own sake, of pandering, and increasingly (on a national level) of corruption. Lots of people make analogies like "Jews for Hitler" or "African-Americans in the KKK", but even though this is hyperbole, there is no doubt that the Republican party today simply doesn't have an ideology that is compatible with gay members. If gay Republicans like Koering work on their fellow party members and try to get the party back to its real conservative roots, I think we will all be better off. I wish him good luck.