Just to give you some context: I’m Black, my family is Black, and my uncle was the pastor of a church. It was an evangelical Presbyterian church that was very racially diverse. We had White people, Black people, Asian people, interracial couples, and so on. So, on the surface, it seemed fairly liberal, right?
The church had a lot of Trump supporters, but it also had a lot of Black members, including my uncle, who hated Donald Trump and still do. They didn’t like Trump, didn’t like the Republican Party, and generally voted Democrat.
To be specific, our youth group was small—only eight teenagers, four of whom were brothers. We were all people of color. One of the church members, however, was a hardcore Republican and MAGA supporter. He invited me and some of the other kids to come paint his fence one day, but my aunt told my mom she didn’t want me going over there because of his politics. There was even some friction within the church because some members supported Trump, while the anti-Trump members strongly disliked those who voted for him.
However, here’s what confuses me: almost every single one of the anti-Trump members—outside of me and maybe two other people—was extremely homophobic and transphobic. They were also all strongly pro-life. They hated abortion and viewed it as “murder.” One kid in the church literally said, “Gay people deserve to be hurt.”
So they held very socially conservative views, yet they didn’t support the Republican Party and hated Trump. Why is that? Why would someone hate MAGA while basically agreeing with many of the same social positions? Why would they call themselves liberals or Democrats? My uncle literally said he was a liberal who votes Democrat, yet he’s extremely pro-life. How can that be?
I’ll ask the same question about the other side. Look at Brad Polumbo—he’s gay, supports LGBTQ+ rights, and has spoken out against racism and homophobia, yet he’s still right-wing and supports the Republican Party. The same goes for Arielle Scarcella, who’s a lesbian, and Blair White, who’s a trans woman and probably the most famous example. I don’t think Blair is necessarily transphobic, but she supports Trump and identifies as Republican.
So why does this happen? Why do some people identify with a political party even when they disagree with that party on major issues? And why do some people reject a party despite agreeing with many of its core positions?
Having a racially diverse church does not necessarily make that group of people liberal.
There are plenty of liberals, especially the religious, that will not share their discomfort, or even disdain, of LGBTQ+ folks in public discourse. They will give performative answers, so that they can show the world that are enlightened. I’ve heard coworkers, as recently as 2 nights ago, saying homophobic or transphobic things whilst unaware that I was nearby. When I confronted one of them about it, he said “my sister is a lesbian, so what is the problem?” Guy calls himself an ally, who happened to vote for trump. I explained why calling oneself an ally is more than just a self-proscribed label, but I know it is lost on him. He is an idiot who blames those people for his problems.
Conservatives are hypocrites at heart. Those with money, and their working class useful idiots, will do and say the exact opposite of what they impose on others, as it suits them. Out of state abortions? Grindr hookups at CPAC?
Christians don’t see that those of us looking in from the outside see no such thing as liberalism in these house’s of worship. This is why it makes news when the extreme minority of church’s allow us to participate.
LGBTQ+ people are certainly capable of and demonstrate hypocrisy as well. (LGB Drop the T, WLW TERFS, bisexual erasure, racism, etc)
Being anti-Trump is not a monolith. Plenty of people dislike the man, but still stand for all of the bigoted conservative views he and his ilk have co-opted. I cannot understand why the “log cabin republicans” exist other than that they want to fit in so bad, they are happy to be one of the good ones. They think they have a seat at the table, when in reality they are pets begging for scraps. They are used by the right to point to and say “we don’t hate the gays, just the freaks that shove it in our faces.”
No different than with people of color—not a monolith. Look at how many Asian and Latino immigrants who are fervent republicans. People of color can absolutely be racists, as it is a human condition. Latino’s voted for the brutalization of their brothers and sisters, for reasons I will never understand, because those are not my lived experiences. For the many years where I hung out with VN folks, I’ve witnessed SE Asian racism against minority SE Asians, but it certainly is a very different beast than white supremacy. It ultimately is a we are better than them worldview.
All people are capable of bigotry and hypocrisy. They’ll claim to be independent while voting straight ticket only one way or the other for their entire adult life. People have voted against their interests for as long as elections have been held. If they did not, the republicans would have lost their grip on the wheel once minority groups started to grow.