New study claims that LGBT Republicans are self-hating—they aren't

Has science finally proven LGBT arguments that gay conservatives are self-loathing? According to a new LGBTQ Nation article, it can no longer be disputed! The article is titled, Gay Republicans really are self-loathing according to science, and it begins by asserting, "A new study from the Williams Institute seems to prove a long-standing assumption about queer Republicans. A large portion of them are unhappy with their sexual orientation and don't want to be part of the LGBTQ community." The basis of this comes from the statistic that 41 percent of gay Republicans wish they were fully heterosexual.

LGBTQ Nation reports from the study, "LGB Republicans were less likely than LGB Democrats to agree that participating in the LGBTQ community is a positive thing or were proud of the LGBTQ community. They are also less likely to feel that problems faced by the LGBTQ community are their own problems."

Based on these two standards, that gay conservatives are "unhappy" with our sexual orientation and that we do not feel connected to the LGBT community, science it seems has proven the LGBT left correct at last!

But what does the "science" really say? The study, which is discussed and promoted by the Williams Institute, is called the Generations study, describing itself as a "[F]ive-year study to examine the health and well-being across three generations of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB). The study explores identity, stress, health outcomes, and health care and services utilization among LGBs in three generations of adults who came of age at different historical contexts." It was organized from 2015 to 2018 and covered 350,000 U.S. adults, and provided personal stories from people living in New York, Arizona, California and Texas as well as quantitative data from the rest of the United States.

Of this group, 1,330 were determined to be eligible for the gay and bisexual portion of the study. The study had three waves of participation, dropping over time, so the total represents the entire study, but each wave involved less and less people. The Williams Institute analyzing the data argues, "Researchers and LGBT community members have seen an inherent incompatibility between LGBT identity and Republican affiliation." This is sourced from a 2015-2018 dissertation by Grant Walsh-Haines for a Ph.D. in Philosophy titled, Issues framing and identity politics in the Log Cabin Republicans. For perspective the paper asserts, "Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals remain second-class citizens in the United States."

Looking at the data, however, paints a very different picture than what is described above. Beyond the fact that the overall sample itself is quite small, only 40 people identified as Republican, with 522 identifying as Democrat. This means that 16 people in the 5-year study of 1,330 participants who said they were Republican also said they wished they were straight. The study indicates 23 percent said they wished they were not LGB, (9 people) and 41 percent (16 people) said they wished they were straight. In contrast, 17 percent of Democratic participants also said they wished they were straight, which would represent 88 participants.

The statement that gay Republicans do not want to part of the LGBT community is also inaccurate. When the study says gay conservatives are "less likely" to be a part of the LGBT community it means comparatively between Democrats and Republicans. However, 60 percent of gay Republican participants said they felt participation in the LGBT community was positive and 45 to 46 percent said they either felt a bond with or were a part of the community and a full 72 percent said they were proud of the said community. The basis for "don’t want to be a part of the community" seems to be based on the fact only 36 percent said they felt it was important to be politically active in the LGBT community.

Overall LGB Democrats were five times more likely to wish they were straight and therefore qualify under the "self-loathing" category than LGB Republicans. The fun of statistics is that they do not represent the number of people participating and allow nonsense like this to perpetuate if not looked into further. The "academic research" demonstrating being LGBT and Republican are incompatible bases its assumptions, like the study above, on adherence to progressive LGBT standards of advocacy and political participation. The social sciences, it would seem, do a very good job of validating their own beliefs.

LGBT prefer to assimilate and are not motivated by political issues important to LGBT progressives. Even the language, which prioritizes oppression, marginalization and group impact, reveals a progressive worldview, one which conservatives do not assume is universal and true the way progressives do. Progressives are holding conservatives to progressive standards and then finding us failing their tests. As LGBT advocacy groups repeatedly fails to understand, they simply cannot contrast what is important to LGBT on the right with the moral, cultural and political demands of LGBT people on the left.

It seems very important to LGBT liberals to discredit the very existence of LGBT conservatives based on their own ignorance and prejudices which must find something wrong with us in order to maintain their own narrow worldview. The truth of the matter is we have different values, different political and social goals and LGBT people on the right do not believe the same things about our society, America or the world LGBT people on the left do. Being gay or transgender is not a limiting factor in political thinking, except, it seems, for those with a leftwing mindset.

Perhaps there is less of a connection to the LGBT community for LGBT people on the right because the LGBT community continually dismisses, mocks or shames us based on their own prejudices. Have they considered that if they opened their own minds and listened to us rather than obsessively trying to explain us away we might be more interested in engaging with them socially? Politics is not everything and for many LGBT people in general, but especially on the right, the goal is not endless outrage and protests, but normalcy and equality. The exact thing President Trump and the Republican party have demonstrated for four years which is why so many of us support them both.