State Sen. Paul Koering: Idiot

Yes, there are gay Republicans. And yes, they’re sometimes even elected to public office by other Republicans. Minnesota State Sen. Paul Koering is one of them. He came out in 2005 after voting against an amendment to the Minnesota state constitution that would have banned same-sex marriages and civil unions. But now he’s voted against a bill that would legalize gay marriage for his state, and his reasoning is as idiotic as his smile is jolly. He says he voted to deny gay people equal rights because Minnesota has bigger problems to deal with. But unless the state legislature has a rule banning them from considering more than one issue at a time, this cop-out makes so sense at all. More likely, Koering just doesn’t want to rattle the conservative voters who gave him his job, which makes him a coward. That’s right, Koering. I’m callin’ ya yeller. He dug an even deeper hole for himself by conceding that some “gay activists” will be upset with him over this vote. If by “gay activists” he means “people who believe in the equal rights guaranteed in the U.S. constitution”, then he’s right. More details here.