On Single-Issue Voting
Last night I read a post on Michael’s Gay Thought, “Is It OK To Be A Single Issue Voting Gay?” In response to a critic of LGBT single-issue voters, he writes:
The Gay community is at this very moment involved in a civil war in the United States of America. The issue is equal rights for the LGBTQ community,not just equal marriage. If you think this is a bloodless war, you are sadly misinformed and mistaken. Every day Gay kids are committing suicide because of society’s lack of acceptance of who they were born to be. Every day members of the Gay community are physically attacked, abused, murdered, spit on and denied their rights as human beings because of who they are. Our community sheds blood frequently in defense of who we are. Judy Shepard has become a one issue woman since the murder of her son Matthew. Her issue now is that there will be no more cases like Matthew. Would she be called stupid for making this her single issue?
Around the time of our first marriage, I became passionate about the issue of LGBT equality–in marriage and otherwise. Because of my personal connection to the issue, it incensed me that anyone could play politics with my status as a human being. I realized that to cast a vote for someone who didn’t believe in my equality–whether for personal or political reasons–was to condone this opinion.
Yet I didn’t become a single-issue voter. Since then I have voted for a number of people who don’t believe in my right to marry, including our current President.
The converse is also true: voting for someone only because they support LGBT rights is not acceptable, either. I wouldn’t vote for Dick Cheney, for example, though he supports my right to marry.
When I was first able to vote, I was very idealistic about it. I would only vote for the person, not the party. Back then I voted for some very interesting candidates, none of whom had the slightest chance of winning. With age comes–if not wisdom, at least pragmatism. There are a great many issues I care about, and while this one is at the core of my life, it is not everything I think about when casting a vote.
So while I am not a single-issue voter, I understand those who are. Meanwhile, I will do my best to convince the candidates whom I wish to support that I am worthy of the same rights most of them enjoy.
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thanks for this. I am not a single issue voter either. In a time of war and economic recession… so many people are fighting for their lives as well as lgbtq folks. I can’t put on those horsey city blinder things…what are those things called where it forces them to only look in one direction?
I also want to thank you for this, there are so many people with specific causes who vote based on one issue and that is a bit scary. What will they tolerate to get that one issue solved to their satisfaction? I’ve known quite a few people who ONLY care about abortion positions and others who only care about marijuana laws (just as an example two of the prominent issues that aren’t LGBT). It’s great to have a single issue you pour your passion into, but when you vote, vote for the person who best represents ALL your positions or you will likely get screwed in every other way.
We really need more parties to count in elections, though. The ones in power care about nothing but keeping the other parties from having any of their own and many of us are left with no one who represents our opinions. If we had more people to vote for maybe something would actually get better because there would be real competition.