When the quoted a prominent black preacher as saying he would ?ride with the KKK? as long as they opposed gay marriage, it caused a stir. It added to a lot of people?s feelings that the Republicans had succeeded in coopting African American religious and political leaders into standing on the front lines against same-sex marriage. (Of course, it sure didn?t help when the Advocate claimed that black people no longer face overt discrimination.)

But as usual in American politics, people are leaving class out of the discussion. Antagonism towards queers has a lot to do with the fact they?ve perceived as not just whites, but upper class whites. Though there are many working class queers (and queers of color) out there, the media routinely present gay men, in particular, as rich snobs. Shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy portray gays as snotty and materialistic, obsessed with haute couture and fashion. It?s a running joke on Frazier that everyone thinks Frazier and Niles are gay, because they act like wealthy aesthetes.

Confirming these stereotypes, the San Francisco Chronicle paints the same-sex newlyweds as mostly doctors and/or lawyers. It seems as though marriage is the one piece of middle class respectablitity that working class hets can still claim that queers can?t, and now that?s being taken away.

It all plays into the Republican strategy to divert class warfare from economic issues to cultural antipathy. George Bush seems to have learned one thing from his openly patrician dad: act like a working stiff, and people will forget your silver spoon and ties to the mega-rich. If queers succeeded in projecting an image that wasn?t so snobbish, they?d not only improve their own lot, they?d hand the GOP a major setback as well.