Paul Ryan on LGBT Isuues

Hey there,

So if you're part of and/or involved with the LGBT community now you've probably seen the Human Rights Campaign's response to the GOP's VP nomination by now:

Let's go ahead and assume that there aren't only 4 things one should know about Paul Ryan, but these are the ones HRC highlighted.

Erwin de Leon, a researcher and writer in the DC area, wrote a piece for Nonprofit Quarterly, "Ryan, Romney’s VP Pick, Stirs Viral Response from LGBT Group", and among the points of his article, I love the point he ends with, explaining the promptness with which HRC responded to the announcement.

If Romney, Ryan and most of the Republican Party didn’t adopt anti-LGBT positions, then perhaps they wouldn’t have such determined and energized opponents. (read more)

One issue that has come up is the larger conversation in terms of what LGBT issues are. This has prompted numerous exchanges all over the internets and social media, such as the one below, between Dan Savage and Chris Barron:

@chrisrbarron @cjaymahoney Ryan's position and record on gay issues: advocate.com/politics/elect…
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 12, 2012

@fakedansavage you nor HRC nor the Advocate get to decide what qualifies as gay issues. @cjaymahoney
— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) August 12, 2012

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. To be fair the exchange was more in depth than this selection, and I gotta give props to Dan Savage for RT'ing tweets that might be critical or disagree with him.

But personal thoughts and opinions aside, I recommend reading craigkg's piece on the Daily Kos, "ABC News: Ryan more pro-LGBT than GOP; Reality: not so much". He breaks down Paul Ryan's policy history into facts based on legislative voting records, which HRC turns into a scorecard for members of congress:

[Paul Ryan's] scores, in order for the 111th through 107th Congresses are, in order: Zero, 10, Zero, Zero, Zero. That's on a 100 point scale. (read more)

So...there's that. And don't mistake me, I don't think anyone should be a single issue voter, and I'm actually going to be blogging soon about Paul Ryan's support for the arts. If anything, it's curious when a person belongs to different groups & communities whose interests sometimes come into conflict with each other. Ultimately, I believe it's the duty of every individual to inform themselves, which is what I'm just beginning to do.

I suppose I've been fortunate that I have not been in that situation, and all the various communities I'm a part of, the different aspects of my individual identity, more or less exist in harmony with each other in my own life.

Any other articles you recommend checking out about Paul Ryan and his stance or history on LGBT issues? Let me know. Are you a member of the LGBT community that supports him? Please share why.

Also, coming up next week for Social Media Monday, I'll be blogging about Paul Ryan and the response his nomination had in social media. Definitely let me know if you've seen any particular memes are parody accounts on twitter, as well,

Until next time,

JR