A lot of terms get thrown around during the election season, lumping complex demographics into something simpler — the black vote, the Hispanic vote, the female vote, the gay vote, the soccer mom vote. These terms have become commonplace in campaign strategies and election coverage and tend to neglect the complex demographics within groups.

For example, most Americans assume the gay vote always sides with the Democratic party. But you know the adage about assumptions. It makes an “ass” out of “U” and “me.”

However, the gay vote doesn’t always lean to the left. Just like the black, Hispanic, or female vote, members of the LGBT community fall in all areas of the political spectrum.

The Log Cabin Republicans are a portion of the Republican Party that strive to advance the cause of the LGBT agenda and like the rest of the GOP, they’ve thrown their support behind John McCain.

While they have openly endorsed McCain’s bid for the presidency, most chapters recognize that real change begins on Main Street, not Pennsylvania Avenue, and have chosen to dedicate their efforts on the state and local level.

“We’re interested in working to expand chapters here in the state. We are really trying to get [the chapter in] Columbia up and running,” says Truman Smith, president of South Carolina’s chapter of Log Cabin Republicans.

While the Log Cabins find themselves on the Republican side of the aisle in the House and Senate, they are some of the most willing Republicans to drop party lines in the name of progress. They constantly work with their Democratic counterpart, the Stonewall Democrats.

“We don’t see eye to eye on all the issues, but we have so much common ground that we have to team up,” says Smith.

Both organizations plan on continuing their advancement of the LGBT agenda not only through November, but beyond. The organizations are currently working in conjunction with the Alliance For Full Acceptance to sponsor an advanced screening of the documentary Ask Not, a film about the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy in the military. —Myles Hutto

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