Here's how: I teach at a seminary; I'm religious. You would most likely look at my mail-in ballot and conclude I'm a conservative. I also campaigned against prop 8, hard. Tell me again about how being a religious conservative needs to get reported to HR and how it's literally impossible for me to work with gay people? Republicans passed those measures, yes, but then when people started losing lawsuits over cakes it just made things worse and in their minds confirmed all their fears. Most Republicans that I know were not "proudly discriminating" - they thought they were protecting their rights to their religion. I agree they're mistaken, but don't prove them right.
Your idea is not a step up. It's changing the discrimination to something else. You're not about tolerance - you're about forcing your world view on other people. Which is exactly the problem with the Republican Party.
edit: Also, in a very reliably blue state like California, not sure you can level all the blame for prop 8 at just "religious conservatives".
>Your idea is not a step up. It's changing the discrimination to something else. You're not about tolerance - you're about forcing your world view on other people.
No, I'm not. I'm about not kowtowing to people who have demonstrated, over and over again, that they have zero tolerance for people who don't conform to their religious teachings and lifestyle choices. Thinking that these people are somehow going to treat others fairly is fantasy.
>edit: Also, in a very reliably blue state like California, not sure you can level all the blame for prop 8 at just "religious conservatives".
Who else are you going to blame? The only people who want to restrict the rights of homosexuals are religious people. Non-religious people don't care, because they don't have dogmatic teachings telling them that being gay is "evil" and destroying society. California being "blue" has little to do with it: it's not only non-religious people who vote "blue".
As for you, if your mail-in ballot shows you to be conservative and you vote for people like Cruz, then you're voting for what you claim to be against (things like Prop 8). Note that I'm not claiming that all religious people are conservative and anti-LGBT; there's a reason I singled out "religious conservatives".
>Most Republicans that I know were not "proudly discriminating" - they thought they were protecting their rights to their religion.
That's because their flavor of religion does encourage them to discriminate, so yes, they really were "proudly discriminating".
Cruz? Where on Earth did you get that I might support Cruz? Oh wait... I think I get what happened: I made some comments regarding my religion and used a political label. In reality, I'm referring to a number of fiscal and regulatory measures on my ballot. But you took that label and ran with it and came to the conclusion that I've voted for measures that would discriminate against homosexuals. You stereotyped me based on a couple of labels. In reality, I changed party affiliations when the gay marriage issue flared up before I was ever able to legally vote. I did so after I spoke with a relative and close friend who is gay, and realized that the political party I had supported did not actually match my religious values.
And that is why you judge people based on their individual, real actions, and you don't discriminate based on political or religious labels, just like you don't discriminate based on someone's sexual lifestyle. Because it's fundamentally wrong. Hypocrite. Boom. Roasted. Mic drop.
Your idea is not a step up. It's changing the discrimination to something else. You're not about tolerance - you're about forcing your world view on other people. Which is exactly the problem with the Republican Party.
edit: Also, in a very reliably blue state like California, not sure you can level all the blame for prop 8 at just "religious conservatives".