Hello and welcome to Outward Slate's podcast where we welcome queers and allies of all parties, dance parties, underwear parties,

Tupperware parties, pajama parties. Everyone is welcome. I'm Brian Loudern editor at Slate,

and this week we're digging into a topic that I have always found somewhat mysterious and

perplexing, the phenomenon of the gay Republican. Now, I want to be clear, I say perplexing not because I think

all queer should be capital D Democrats in terms of party affiliation. While that may be the

practical thing in our current system in terms of voting, there's a lot to be desired with that

party as well. And it's always worth remembering that the Dems only pretty recently came around

to supporting LGBTQ equality themselves. But you have to admit that

it is undeniably strange to align oneself with a political movement that seems to actively hate you,

particularly in a time when that hatred has really freed itself from the shackles of politeness

and made its way out into the open and to don't say gay style bills and all of that.

It's easy to dismiss LGBT Republicans as maybe delusional or hypocritical, but as it turns out,

there's a lot more that draws a not insignificant number of queers to conservatism.

To help us understand all this, we're joined today by the writer and historian Neil J. Young,

who's written a fascinating book

titled Coming Out Republican, A History of the Gay Right. Neal's book is the landmark account of this

group, and it's a much-needed, richly-told addition to not only the history of the right in America,

but to LGBTQ history in general. Because as we will discuss, gay Republicans have been far

more influential in our movement than we give them credit for.

Even if their particular path has led us to a world where neo-fascist, MAGA, gays are out here fighting woke,

and Caitlin Jenner is appearing regularly on Fox News.

We will be back with that conversation and with Neil right after a little break. Neil Young is the author previously of We Gather Together, The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics.

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