In every election homophobia has been part of the landscape and in every campaign I've been able to become connected enough to my constituents that they know who I am and that I can be elected on my merits.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think my election is one of several indications that gay and lesbian folk are being brought more into the center of things. I'd like to think that my election signals my bringing of gay and lesbian folk into the center of the church.
I don't feel, finally, that my politics are entirely determined by the fact that I'm a gay man.
I think it is important for someone like me to not run away from who I am but embrace it. LGBT people across the country need to know they have a friend in Congress.
Gay activists claim that because I don't subscribe to their political agenda, I am a homophobe, meaning I have a mental disorder - because that is what phobias are.
Giving votes in exchange for ideological support. To wit: identity politics for homosexuals.
When I first ran for Congress in the 1990s, my background as an openly gay Asian was one of the focal points of the campaign, and, in fact, my opponent attacked me for it.
I'm not afraid of elections. I've won every election I've fought in.
I'm not homophobic.
I mean, I am fully aware of my influence and my responsibility to society in general representing the gay community. But in the same time, I don't represent the entire gay community because it's a vast, vast community, as one can imagine.
I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.