Michael Steele: Marking 100 Days of Anti-LGBT Wingnuttery

While all of the attention these past few weeks has been on President Obama marking 100 days in office, there's another politico marking 100 days in office with little more to show for his time than a bunch of anti-LGBT statements.  That man is Michael Steele, head of the Republican National Committee.

Steele, who's popularity in the Republican party seems somewhere just above Mark Foley or Larry Craig, has certainly struggled to lead during his first three-plus months in office.  When he hasn't been kissing the ring of Rush Limbaugh, or reaching out to what he calls "one-armed" midgets, Steele has been blasting every advance made for LGBT rights in 2009.

While Republicans like Steve Schmidt (former McCain campaign manager) and John Huntsman (Governor of Utah) try to rebrand their party in a more moderate, mainstream way with regard to LGBT rights, Steele has stepped up the anti-LGBT rhetoric.  Despite opposing earlier efforts to amend the federal constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Steele now thinks an amendment is necessary and would advocate for rewriting the U.S. constitution to discriminate against LGBT people.  Given that there's absolutely no traction for amending the U.S. constitution to discriminate (despite what Mitt Romney thinks), this position isn't likely to hold water among the overall electorate.  But it's certainly an example of Michael Steele's steady crawl to the wingnut wing of his party.

Further proof?  Steele was asked in early March whether he could ever support civil unions for same-sex couples. His response: "“No, no, no. What would we do that for? What, are you crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country?”  Bottom line: Michael Steele thinks that committed gays and lesbians are a threat to the founding values of our country.  Perhaps Michael Steele can go back to his history books and find a time and place where any of our founding mothers and fathers said anything about civil unions or same-sex marriage.  In the meantime, maybe he can check out that line from the Declaration of Independence, which says something along the lines of all people being created equal and endowed by their creator with some inalienable rights to life, liberty and happiness.

Steele also hasn't refrained from chiming in on the recent wave of marriage equality to hit the states.  Regarding the Iowa Supreme Court decision which legalized same-sex marriage, Steele blasted the decision as an example of judicial activism that threatens family values and said that marriage equality decisions should be left to the state legislature.  (But he didn't back up his accusation with one example of how committed gay and lesbian couples threaten family values.  Our guess is because he doesn't have one.)

This week, as Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage, Steele spoke out again against LGBT relationships, putting forth this nugget of a vision for the Republican party: "Our party platform articulates our opposition to gay marriage and civil unions...I believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman and strongly disagree with Maine’s decision to legalize gay marriage."

But wait...if Steele believes that marriage equality decisions should be left up to the state legislature, then why would he be so angry at the state of Maine for passing marriage equality legislation?  Seems like Michael Steele only thinks gay marriage should be left to state legislatures only if the legislature decides to strike down marriage equality.  Strikes us as a little bit hypocritical.

So, at his 100 day mark, is it time for Republicans to wonder (like many have been already) whether Michael Steele is the person they want representing their party?  The last few years have shown that wedge issues like same-sex marriage aren't yielding Republican victories like they used to.  Is an anti-LGBT figurehead in the best interests of the GOP?  Or, given the current crop of leaders in the GOP (Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Sanford, and Eric Cantor), is Steele just preaching the values of the Republican Party platform when he speaks out against same-sex marriage and civil unions?