Look at the rotten fruits of Republicanism from these Babel church buildings...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/us/politics/gay-gop-candidates-feature-partners-in-ads.html?_r=16/19/14
Gay G.O.P. Candidates Feature Partners in AdsWASHINGTON — Richard Tisei’s new campaign ad offers a scene of domestic bliss.
The ad, set to appear in a glossy color brochure on Saturday, features a smiling Mr. Tisei with his arm around his beaming spouse at their wedding reception this year.
And while such familial images have become a staple of modern campaigns, the decision by Mr. Tisei — an openly gay Republican running for Congress — to feature his husband, Bernie Starr, in the ad is a sign of how quickly views are changing on same-sex marriage and the broader tableau of gay rights.
“I think people need to know who I am and what I’m all about,” Mr. Tisei said. “I’m obviously proud to be married to Bernie, and I’m proud to be a Republican.”
For gay candidates, talking openly about a partner or loved one — let alone showcasing them in an ad — has traditionally proved tricky. And the Republican Party has been struggling to adjust to the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage.
But this cycle, three gay Republicans running for Congress — Mr. Tisei in Massachusetts, Carl DeMaio in California and Dan Innis in New Hampshire — are featuring their significant others in campaign ads, a first for a gay congressional candidate from either major political party.
The text of the Tisei ad, which will run in the brochure of a gay pride celebration in his district this weekend, reads: “We all fought to make US possible in Massachusetts... Now, I’ll fight for US in Washington.”
Mr. DeMaio gained attention this year when he released an online video that featured a brief shot of him holding hands with his partner, Johnathan Hale, at a 2012 gay pride parade. In Mr. Innis’s web video to announce his candidacy in October, he says, “I live in Portsmouth with my husband,” before a picture flashes on the screen of the two of them, along with their “three great kids.” (Mr. Innis is the only one of the three to face a primary challenge; all three are trying to unseat Democratic incumbents.)“Republican candidates are saying it loud,” said Mark McKinnon, a Republican strategist. “They’re out and they’re proud enough to feature their partners in ads, which I think just reflects how fast this issue is moving across the American political spectrum.”In just over a decade since Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriage in 2004, 19 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage. Public opinion on the issue is shifting rapidly, too. In a New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll in February, 56 percent of Americans said they thought same-sex marriage should be legal.
While a majority of Democrats and independent voters support same-sex marriage, a majority of Republicans do not —
but among young Republicans, 56 percent join Democrats and independents in supporting the issue.There are currently six gay members of Congress — five in the House and one in the Senate — and one bisexual, Representative Krysten Sinema of Arizona; all are Democrats.
The last openly gay Republican to serve in Congress was Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who retired in 2006; no Republican has been openly gay when first elected to Congress. (Mr. Kolbe revealed his sexuality after joining the House in 1985.)
On Thursday, the National Organization for Marriage, which supports traditional marriage between a man and a woman, held its second annual “March for Marriage” at the Capitol in Washington. “It is a losing issue at the ballot box,” said Brian S. Brown, the group’s president, “and you’re going to see that if any Republican presidential candidate were to endorse same-sex marriage, I can guarantee you they’re not going to win the Republican primary.”
Mr. DeMaio, Mr. Innis and Mr. Tisei have not broadcast any television commercials with their partners or husbands yet, although Mr. DeMaio plans to show a shorter version of his online ad on television, and the other two campaigns said they would not rule out a television buy.
“The airwaves are loaded with candidate wives and kids,” said Elizabeth Wilner, the senior vice president for politics of Kantar Media Ad Intelligence, which monitors political advertising. “These tentative off-air steps, while landmark, show just how loaded the most ‘101’ ad of a campaign, the bio ad, can be for a gay candidate.”
Nonetheless, the candidates say they need to be part of the future of the Republican Party if it wants to survive, as public opinion and Supreme Court decisions seem to be becoming more open to gay rights. “My brand of Republicanism is that the government should get off your back, out of your wallet and away from the bedroom,” Mr. Tisei said. “For the Republican Party, that philosophy is really key for us to expand our base and become more inclusive about bringing people in.”
Mr. DeMaio said the party needed “to enter the 21st century,” adding, “The party needs to reach out to all communities with a principled message — gays, straight, women, men, Latinos all want the same thing.”
Mr. DeMaio’s decision to include his partner in a campaign video, said Brian Donahue, a founding partner at Craft, which produced the piece, was a simple one. “Carl and his team felt it was important to feature his partner just as any candidate would feature their significant other,” Mr. Donahue said.
For groups that favor same-sex marriage, these ads represent yet another positive sign in the fight for marriage equality.
“There’s this overwhelming momentum, and I think it’s really great, whether Democrat or Republican, to see gay candidates comfortable with being themselves,” said Marc Solomon, the national campaign director of Freedom to Marry. But, Mr. Solomon added, “I would say the political system in general is certainly behind where the public is on marriage and general acceptance of gay people.”
There are signs, at least, that House Republicans are listening. When Representative J. Randy Forbes of Virginia last year urged the National Republican Congressional Committee to withhold financial support from gay candidates, Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the committee’s chairman, spoke up in support of gay Republicans.The committee recently announced its television ad buy for the fall, and it includes $1.7 million in the San Diego market, where Mr. DeMaio is running, and $2.2 million in Boston and Manchester, N.H., which covers the districts Mr. Innis and Mr. Tisei are seeking to represent.
