From Midterm Madness, Gay Liberty's Growth?

For too long politicians, particularly Republicans, used marriage equality to sway and scare voters their way. "Vote for us or the gay will take over," said some candidates in the past.

Those days may soon be over, for a new generation of fiscally conservative candidates have seen the light and realized gay rights aren't about elections. They're about liberty.

"I am fortunate that the Republicans of Minneapolis were reasonable enough to endorse a candidate who wants to reduce spending and bring careers to Minnesota, while not embracing the traditional conservative social stances," said Brian Gruber, a Republican candidate for the Minnesota State House, at this year's gay pride in Minneapolis.

The candidate went on, about the decision to marry: “Each one of us are in the best position to make decisions regarding our personal and private lives. The more personal and private a decision, the less the government should be involved." Gruber's driving that point home by including marriage equality in his campaign fliers, one of which reads "Make It Happen" by voting for him. He's used the same tactic for medical marijuana.

Gruber's gay marriage position mirrors many of his party's peers, including high profile Republican celebrities Laura Bush, Margaret Hoover and Meghan McCain. And Dick Cheney himself last year said, "I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

And an entire generation of GOP adherents believe the same thing: about 60% of Republicans under the age of 30 support marriage equality, often citing personal liberty as their reason.

This personal liberty argument has been trickling from parts, though certainly not all, of the Libertarian Party for years. The fact that mainstream Republicans and Republican candidates are embracing it shows how deep the idea of small government runs, and the benefits it could bring to LGBT Americans.

Right wingers aren't the only people using the small government argument: Democrat Krystal Ball, a U.S. House candidate from Virginia, told me she's had great success in using small government arguments to convince voters, especially Tea Partiers, that marriage equality is in the nation's best interest. "This is a group of people who very much have that view of 'Keep the government out of my life,' and so I just frame it in terms of 'Let's keep the government out of the marriage chapel, out of the bedroom,'" she said.

We're experiencing a shift in how American citizens view same-sex marriage, and that shift will likely continue into the future. Regardless of how today's votes turn out, and which candidates win, LGBT folks and their allies must take advantage of this inevitable sea change to push for and support candidates who take liberty-based, rather than ballot-based, positions on marriage equality.

Marriage is about love, not politicking, and its time politicians of both parties learn that lesson once and for all.

Of course that's only half the battle. The next phase is moving the argument a bit further, because, as Ball told me, small government is only one component to overall equality and freedom from harm. "We're in a place now where not only do we just need the government to leave people alone," she said. "We do actually need explicit protections in the law for gay, lesbian and transgender people, like non-discrimination, fighting against bullying, those sorts of things."

Step by step, reader. And the first step starts locally, by voting.

Photo credit: Mary MacTavish's Flickr