| By Jake Blumgart - Oct 20th, 2009 at 6:18 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Updates |
Tags: gay rights, GLBTQ, health care, HIV/AIDS, the Advocate, The New Republic, Tom Coburn
From TNR.
Arch-conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) proposes, in the pages of the Advocate no less, that GLBTQ communities come out in favor of market solutions to health care reform, particularly for the the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
It will be interesting to see how Coburn, who has railed against GLBTQ people for years, would explain this attempt at outreach to his more reactionary constituents. It'd be even more interesting to see him explain his 2004 quote to the Advocate:
The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.
Oops.
!
But I'll take a stab at trying to understand it anyway. My guess is that Coburn is more ideologically invested in the "drown-government-in-a-bathtub " brand of conservatism than in his anti-GLBTQ bigotry. He is willing to complicate the latter in an attempt to confuse the healthcare reform debate. But once DADT or gay marriage gets to the Senate again, I can't really see him trying to cement the alliance. And judging from the comments on his Advocate piece, I don't think most GLBTQ people can see it either.