Lesbians Come Out of the Republican Closet

Sarah Wheaton at NYT:

In 1996, Kathryn Lehman was a soon-to-be married lawyer working for Republicans in the House of Representatives. One of her major accomplishments: helping to write the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Today, Ms. Lehman, 53, no longer has a husband, and no longer identifies as straight. And she is a lobbyist for Freedom to Marry, which is devoted to overturning the very law she helped write, the Defense of Marriage Act.

But Ms. Lehman is still a fervent Republican.

“I’m trying to break the stereotype that all gays and lesbians, especially lesbians, are Democrats,” she said. ...

From the comments:

As a conservative lesbian who spent many of my adult years as a Left-winger and registered Democrat, I don't exactly fit the profile presented here of the closeted life-long church-going Republican who figures out she's a lesbian later in her life.

I've been out since the age of 22 and have lived through those bad old days before homosexuals became the victim class du jour. Yet, as a white middle-class woman, I would never have the audacity to describe myself as 'oppressed'.

And calling the Republican party 'the oppressor', as one commenter did, and insisting that lesbians and gays place their sexual orientation first and foremost when it comes to the complex political issues of the day is to present us to the world as two dimensional people with absolutely no other concerns about our country and our culture.

I worked with a Tea Party organization as an out lesbian and never experienced any negativity around my sexual orientation. To the contrary---I was welcomed. Yet, on the liberal side of the fence, I have had to put up with confrontation, threats, and shunning for being an out lesbian conservative.

I host a little blog that attracts conservative lesbians and gay men as well as conservative straight men and women. Some of my biggest supporters have been straight conservative men. Quite frankly, I have found more acceptance and more open-minds on the conservative side than I have ever found on the Left.