Thread by @SeanCasten

Today's @GOP: Torn between those who advocate for intolerance and hatred and those who see is purely as a wedge issue to win an election. Almost none willing to simply acknowledge #loveislove and LGBT rights are human rights. politico.com/news/magazine/…

And this ain't just "Trumpworld". Only 8 Republicans voted for the Equality Act to ensure that the LGBTQ community has equal rights under the law. That should never have been controversial in a nation dedicated to equality.
rollcall.com/2019/05/17/the…

When we passed that bill on the floor, the final @GOP amendment was to protect Title IX, on the bizarro-world theory that boys would otherwise change their gender to compete in women's sports. That's not serious policy. It's homophobic / transphobic dog-whistling.

The idea that a teenage kid is going to go through all the social stigma and mental stress that trans kids go through every day on the hope they could be a little more athletically competitive. You have to be utterly devoid of empathy to believe that.

(And, it should be noted, have never watched women's sports. After all, there isn't a single member of the House, male or female who could last a round in the ring against @RepDavids.)

But at a larger level, how do you pursue public office in a country dedicated to the proposition that that we are born with the inalienable right to pursue happiness and then see people who are struggling to be accepted for who they are and decide to punch down?

The answer is you have to yourself be a hateful person, or simply too venal to care. So single-mindedly focused on winning an election regardless of the consequences to burn down hope and love in your wake. It is mean. It is immoral. It is the opposite of leadership.

(Except, I suppose for that group of @GOP officials who are so filled with hate and intolerance that they are actively using their positions of leadership to bend public will towards their paleolithic, hateful views.)

We shouldn't accept this. Fighting for equal rights should not be partisan. Asking elected officials to call out our better angels rather than our lesser demons should be a bare minimum requirement of the job. And yet the @GOP does neither.

Anyway, with all the serious problems in the world, from pandemics to economic meltdowns to global warming it makes me angry that a once-great party wants to re-litigate the culture wars. They need to grow up before we let them eat at the big kids table again. /fin