McCain And The Gays

Kirchick is impressed:

...the difference in tone on gay issues -- for those who were listening specifically -- between this convention and the last is markedly different. Which isn't much of a surprise, seeing that McCain's entirely comfortable around gays and has no interest in the GOP base's anti-gay hysteria. The Advocate's Sean Kennedy, no McCain partisan he, notes that, aside from a Mike Huckabee promise to save marriage from the gays, "there was an utter lack of rhetoric on gay issues" at the convention.

Other gay sources within the GOP tell me they are very pleased not only with the McCain pick, but also, surprisingly, with the Palin one (I've been looking into her record on gay issues this past week and will have more to report later). All in all, they view McCain's ascension (and the rejection of Mitt Romney, whom the Log Cabin Republicans attempted to torpedo in the primary) as a move in the right direction for the GOP, and whatever the weird church revival feel of the convention this past week, I think they're correct.

McCain's speech was the first Republican address in a long while that didn't mention same-sex marriage.  What he didn't say was in some ways as significant as what he did. And the gulf between the "church revival feel" of the convention and McCain's reticence on gay issues reveals just how out of step with reality the party machinery has become.