Madeline Koch
Many of us in the LGBT community — perhaps most of us — are dead set in our belief that trying to make progress on LGBT rights within the Republican Party is a waste of time. And we show little tolerance, much less respect, for those LGBT people who are Republican and who continue to persist in their efforts to support the GOP while at the same time making it more welcoming to LGBT people and LGBT equality.
I admit that, at least when it comes to the Republican Party as it stands today under its current leadership, especially here in Texas, I see little hope for progress. But the fact is, the folks currently in power in the GOP won’t always be in power. There is a new generation moving up through the Republican ranks, and it is, I think, in that generation that our hope lies.
Poll after poll shows that younger people, even younger Republicans, believe in equal rights for LGBT people in far greater numbers than their parents and grandparents. Take, for example, Meghan McCain, daughter of current senator and former presidential candidate John McCain. Despite her father’s anti-LGBT stances, Meghan McCain has come out time after time in support of our community and our efforts toward equality.
And she’s not the only one.
