Do not fuck these people.
Long read but some highlights: "My first election was Clinton's second term — and I voted for him," said Rogers, a corporate lawyer in Dallas. "Since then, I've voted for Gore, George W., Obama and Romney."
On Nov. 3, he'll be pulling the lever for Donald Trump for the second time.
“I had every intention of voting for Hillary in 2016, but Comey had released his statement the day before, giving me all sorts of doubts,” Rogers, 44, said. “I wasn't thrilled with Hillary as a nominee, and I don't trust the Clintons at all, but she acted more presidential. At the last minute, I went with Trump and have had no regrets since.”
Phil Kazmierczak, a gay real estate agent in Virginia who said he's "100 percent on board" with the president, blames Democrats for fixating on identity politics. Kazmierczak called Trump a “staunch supporter of gay people and their rights,” but he said he makes a distinction when it comes to religious groups.
For Rogers, Trump’s bona fides with the community aren’t so important.
"I don't base my vote on my being gay. It's not a huge concern for me," he said. "I'm not going to be a victim or try to find the worst thing to complain about. I don't see direct anti-gay rhetoric from the president himself."
Many gay Trump supporters say they're tired of being told what political views are acceptable.
"A lot of people just don't like to be told they can only think a certain way, and that's exactly what the left does," said Bob Kabel, chair of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay conservative group. "You're accused of being a racist or a homophobe if you don't agree with everything they say, and a lot of people are just tired of that."
In 2018, Brandon Straka was an unknown gay hairstylist and aspiring actor. After he launched a YouTube video explaining why he had decided to #WalkAway from the Democratic Party, he quickly became a right-wing social media phenomenon, with appearances on Fox News and more than a half-million Twitter followers, including Donald Trump Jr. and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.
Asked about Trump's attitude toward the LGBTQ community, Kabel offered a series of well-rehearsed talking points: Trump is "the most gay-friendly president," same-sex marriage is settled law, Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the pro-LGBTQ decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and the administration is doing great work on HIV/AIDS.
Kabel said he wishes the Republican National Committee would have met this year to update the party's official platform, which still states at least five times that marriage should exclusively be a union of "one man and one woman." But he said he's not worried about a backslide on LGBTQ rights.
"The social conservatives understand that we've won on marriage," he said. "They've lost, we've won, and I think they really play it down now."
Trump's "offered us a real seat at the table," Kabel added, "and I think he deserves a lot of credit for doing that."