People are shaking their heads at Rob Smith.
Smith is known for being deeply devoted to his country and rooted in the political structure of the United States of America.
Back in 2010, Smith and 13 other military personal and civilians joined together to protest. They chained themselves to the White House fence in order to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Then when former President Obama ended the system, he had Smith and the other activists join him to celebrate.
That said, many are now shocked at Smith’s next political move as it’s a jump from one party to the other.
In an interview with UK Daily Mail, Smith has announced that he now identifies as a Republican.
Rob Smith says that there are several reasons for his changing parties such as disagreements on immigration, Islam, and political focus on LGBTQ rights.
“In order to adhere to [some] principles and believe in these principles, I have to believe in everything else and I don’t believe in everything else,” he said.
“I do believe in strong borders, I do believe that we need to start having real conversations about the illegal immigration situation in this country. And when you say that, you are excommunicated. You are called a racist, you are called all sorts of different things that detract from ideas.”
That said, Smith really attests his change to reading the book American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity to Everyone by Marco Rubio.
“I had never read anything or even encountered a conservative that actually had real ideas about how to change some of these systems and still help people,” Smith said.
“For me as a black person, these ideas of empowering and uplifting the black community, these ideas of fighting for LGBTQ rights, these are not ideas that need to be subscribed to any political party. These are ideas that exist within us. And these are ideas that I’m just not finding in the Democratic Party right now.”
While Smith says that he’s identifying with the group that could offer the most opportunities for black people and LGBTQ people, he says he still agrees with some of Democratic views. He just feels that Republicans will get the jobs he needs doing done.
Many have argued to Smith that he shouldn’t be aligning with the Republican party, and he says he has even lost some friends because of it. Even his family doesn’t want to understand.
“I mean, I just talked to my mother about it last week and she says she just doesn’t understand it,” Smith told the paper. “She literally said she’s going to come up to New York and kick my ass.”
Should identifying as another political party be so bad? As Smith points out, Democrats aren’t inherently a “sign of morality” and Republicans aren’t automatically “a sign of evil.” LGBTQ sites are often very liberal, and write under this misconception. We shouldn’t demonize Smith and gay Republicans like him just for being Republican.
That said, we shouldn’t let their idealist thoughts steamroll facts. Republicans under the messy leadership of Donald Trump have become the party of traditionalism verging on racism, sexism, and many other problematic things.
Despite a few “Gays for Trump” rallies happening in Washington, there’s not a lot of connection between LGBTQ people and Republican people. In fact, Republicans have openly opposed LGBTQ people on many fronts.
Republicans have repeatedly attempted to ban transgender service members from the military under the excuse of avoiding medical bills. Trump’s administration has also stopped acknowledging Pride Month, dropped LGBTQ people from the U.S. 2020 Census (before later adding them), erased LGBTQ rights issues from the official white house site, fired the AIDS Advisory Council, and more.
While Republicans don’t necessarily need to be demonized, let’s not pretend that they are the Promised Land for social rights and justice. They may have their benefits, but that in no way erases their problems.
h/t: LGBTQNation
Sorry that I’m late to the party on this issue but I think it’s high time that gays let the scales fall from their eyes and realize that they have become everything they have always hated. Rob Smith figured it out.
I am a gay conservative (always have been to both) and I’m surprised that I haven’t heard of him until just today
My guess is he’s looking for
My guess is he’s looking for an additional 15 minutes of fame that will land him a job.