A Gay Jewish Republican for President? Don’t Laugh

Let’s not beat around the bush: Fred Karger won’t be sitting in the Oval Office anytime soon.  But that doesn’t mean his quest for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is worth ignoring – or that advocates of LGBT equality shouldn’t find cause to cheer his campaign on.

Who is Fred Karger?  He’s been a Republican far longer than he’s been a gay rights activist, to be sure, and his record in that regard is unlikely to endear liberals to his campaign. As an April profile in Mother Jones reported, Karger has worked for Republican campaigns since he was 14.  He spent a full 27 years working for the GOP consulting firm Dolphin Group, known for its work with the infamous GOP strategist Lee Atwater, of Willie Horton ad fame.  Karger was also involved in setting up faux-grassroots “Astroturf” groups for large corporations, such as a group created for tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris that lobbied against smoking bans.

Not surprisingly, Karger spent most of his GOP career in the closet.  But when he came out, his career took a colorful turn. In 2005, he publicly waged a campaign to save a Laguna Beach, California gay bar, Boom Boom Room. This effort didn’t succeed, but it ultimately led to Karger’s involvement in the fight against Proposition 8.

In the summer of 2008, Karger founded Californians Against Hate (CAH, now called Rights Equal Rights), a group dedicated to publicizing the names of Prop 8 donors.

CAH subsequently focused on Mormon donations to the 8 campaign, establishing the website Mormongate, which exposed the LDS Church’s history of strategizing against same-sex marriage.  Their research was the foundation for the critically acclaimed documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition.

It’s this recent history as an LGBT activist that has culminated in Karger’s presidential run.  And while Karger may maintain many of his conservative credentials (in a conversation with me, he compared his “pro-Israel” record to that of Menachem Begin), he has no intention of waging a conventional campaign against Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and other 2012 GOP hopefuls. Instead, he has a more straightforward primary goal:  to “make a ruckus about gay rights and why the Republican Party doesn't officially support them.”

If that sounds ridiculous, keep in mind that the two lead primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire, have both legalized same-sex marriage. It’s only fair that at the 2012 GOP debates, the party’s field should have to face some uncomfortable questions about why they would support stripping Iowan and New Hampshire gay couples of the rights they’ll have had for over two years.

Even if successful in reaching the debates, Karger won’t be able to change the GOP overnight. It’s fair to assume that the GOP candidates will maintain (at least publicly) views that are in accordance with the party’s socially conservative base, rather than with socially liberal, elite conservatives like Meghan and Cindy McCain, Ken Mehlman, and Steve Schmidt.

But nonetheless, it’s those moments Karger aims to provoke – of confrontation with the reality of married gay and lesbian couples living their lives in the same states in which these candidates are campaigning, of strained attempts to explain why their equal rights are already harming society – that will gradually chip away at opposition to gay rights.  As quixotic as Karger’s campaign may seem, that’s something to applaud.

Photo credit: fredkarger.com