Paddy Manning, Douglas Murray, Milo Yiannopoulos and Peter Thiel.
I wish everyone knew by now that being LGBT and Conservative, like the writer of this article, is possible. Must I name icons such as Douglas Murray, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Blaire White? Yet I still get looks of shock and amusement when I come out as a conservative.
Conservatism ought to be tried by the LGBT movement. The problem is that many LGBT people would not know the benefits which this political philosophy offers.
Conservatism places responsibility on the individual, not on a “nanny state”. Real conservatives do not see identity politics, nor want self-congratulation for whatever race, sexuality or gender they are because they know that a person is so much more than that.
It is astonishing how it has become inevitable for many LGBT people to victimise themselves and shout injustice, by saying “these are a bunch of straight white males who act only and solely to protect their privilege”. The truth is, if you’re not doing the job right, whatever it is, you’re out and that’s it. These conservative people are the ones who built the structures for every single individual to thrive in. They wouldn’t have employed so-called “minorities” in the first place if they actually thought you were unfit for the job.
Conservatives don’t care about your demographic silo. Just look at how many successful gay people there are in any professional career (Hollywood, journalism, music, politics, business, etc). It is important to underline that on average, gay and lesbian couples earn more than their straight counterparts in the U.S., the heart of capitalism. Does that sound like discrimination to you? Capitalism doesn’t care about what you do behind closed doors as customer demand for a product is the only driving factor of a company’s success. Only in isolated cases that are blown out of proportion are LGBT minorities actually persecuted by hierarchies. And guess what? True conservatism condemns those cases in the same manner as the LGBT movement does.
Furthermore, the law in the West will defend you no matter who you are in cases of unjust homophobic/racist/sexist treatment. How many countries in Europe can you be personally persecuted and killed by government orders for being queer?
UN member state and leader of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, will have you subject to Sharia Law, capital punishment, thrown off roofs, tortured, flogged, castrated, or imprisoned just for engaging in homosexual activity or cross dressing. These ideas can’t possibly be the same in the West now, can they? A poll made by the ICM polling agency in 2016 on 1,081 British Muslims concluded that 52% of them thought that homosexuality should be made illegal. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on having my neighbour wanting me behind bars for holding my girlfriend’s hand. Let’s just keep in mind here that these were British Muslims, meaning these are the people who have been exposed to Western culture for quite a long time, and still a majority reject the LGBT movement, and many other values of the West such as women’s rights. Just so we’re clear, I have several friends of Muslim faith who are very liberal and don’t care what I do in my personal life. Keep in mind this is a minority, not a majority.
Conservatism in this case protects the LGBT crowd by embracing the idea strong on borders, which is not the same as being anti-immigration. I’m also aware of LGBT people in the Middle East looking to flee their countries to live without putting their lives in danger on a daily basis. This is where points-based immigration systems come into place. The West is an incredibly liberal place where young gays, lesbians and transgenders can thrive and we ought to keep it that way.
During the debate, one of the proposition speakers made the intelligent argument of differentiating the LGBT community from the LGBT movement or lobby. Thus, it is important for the entire LGBT community to realise that the best sort of movement they can have, is one that seeks to protect all of their members’ interests. The LGBT movement will continue to lose strength if it keeps disenchanting their conservative colleagues.
We have to recognise the shift in conservatism that we’ve been seeing in recent times and that even a dialogue between social conservatism and LGBT interests is possible. Conservatives today aren’t necessarily religiously motivated and if they are, they tend to take a more libertarian approach to LGBT issues. These religious conservatives know that the West does not function like most countries in the Middle East. The countries in Europe and in the Americas do not use Judeo-Christian holy books to rule their countries and determine the law of the land.
On another issue, the LGBT movement can and should be compatible with personal religious freedom, an issue which is now rarely defended by people other than conservatives. Is it fair for Christian bakers who refuse to make a lesbian couple’s wedding cake based on personal belief to be condemned for it? Religious belief is just as valid and as central to a person’s identity as their sexuality, or whatever gender you believe you are. These people have no issue with homosexuals and would happily make a cake for a gay person’s birthday or graduation ceremony. They simply do not wish to partake in something they fundamentally don’t believe in. That is their right. It is not homophobic by any means. People have different points of views, beliefs and values, and that’s OK. The beauty of capitalism is that you can just pick another baker.
The proposition was also quick to call out conservatives for cutting health taxes, and call them homophobic and transphobic for such actions, as this impacts the LGBT movement in several ways such as trans surgeries, treatment for HIV, etc. The reality is that most people, and by extension most conservatives, truly don’t care what other people do with their lives. They just want to be with their family and friends and not be told what to do, what to say, or where their money must be spent. For all they care, you can get all the medical treatment you want, they just don’t want it coming out of their own pockets. Someone not funding something for you doesn’t mean they are infringing on your right to do so.
Today, the LGBT movement seems to be oppositional to conservatism, but as I have pointed out, it should not be incompatible.
I beg you to oppose the motion.
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