‘Perfectly natural’: Blogger talks about being a gay conservative in Michigan

Joe Sylvester, 23, is a complex conservative.

He believes deeply in ending abortion, assuring free access to guns and a limited government. The Bay City native, who runs the Michigan Conservative Dossier blog, calls himself a “true conservative or a paleoconservative.”

While he supports anti-gay politicians and pundits, Sylvester himself is gay.

His blog, which he claims has 100 readers a day, has broken mainstream news stories a couple of times with mentions in news outlets like the Michigan Information Research Service. He posts the writings of Kyle Bristow, the former leader of the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom who opposes gay rights. Sylvester supports Kalamazoo Republican state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk in his bid to unseat senior U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. Hoogendyk voted against an anti-bullying bill in March 2007 because it would have protected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students from bullying. In the presidential campaign, Sylvester originally supported California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who supports the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that forbids gay servicemen and women from being open about their sexual orientation. Now Sylvester is supporting Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate.

Until now, Sylvester has played his personal life close to his vest. His friends and his family know, but in an exclusive interview with Michigan Messenger and the gay weekly Between the Lines, Sylvester for the first time confirmed that he is gay, and talked about his political views, his sexuality and his deeply held Catholic faith. The interview was conducted both by e-mail and phone.

Continued -Sylvester said he made the move to grant the interview because blogger Mike Rogers had contacted him. Rogers, from Washington, D.C., runs the BlogActive Web site, which is famous for disclosing the sexual orientation of politicians and staffers who are working on anti-gay legislation.

“Mike Rogers is looking at doing a piece to trash me, so I think it is better to get it out on better terms,” Sylvester said. “I believe that everybody knows. I have not directly talked with everybody about it, but I believe everybody knows.”

Sylvester cringes at the reference that he is “coming out,” saying he is already “out.”

“Yes, I am gay,” Sylvester said. “It is no secret.”

“The whole debate – gay this, and gay that – it’s so skewed and often illogical,” Sylvester said. He talked at length about the impact that John Corvino, a Wayne State University professor and Between the Lines columnist, has had on him. Sylvester said Corvino’s words really helped him to make the issue of being gay a logical issue. He said Corvino’s way of framing the issue of homosexuality and Christianity would help everyone and “we would all be better off” following the writer’s example.

“‘How can one be gay and Republican?’ It’s a fairly easy one to answer,” Sylvester said. “I vote what is best for the nation. If people in politics don’t want to recognize me, fine. I can do without recognition from a large bloated bureaucracy which is generally corrupt and dysfunctional. It’s not about me; it’s about the common good. If there is a candidate that is opposed to killing babies in the womb, restricting guns rights and raising taxes and opposed to gay marriage I will support that candidate because it is what’s best for everyone.”

As for his connections with well known anti-gay leaders in the state, like Hoogendyk and Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, Sylvester said he supported them.

“I’ve met Mr. Glenn working on the failed ‘Stop Overspending Initiative.’ He seems to be genuine. Maybe I’ll be in his cross hairs, who knows? I don’t question his motives, only some of his logic,” Sylvester said. “Jack Hoogendyk is a good man. I support him 100 percent because I believe it (is) for the greater good that Carl Levin be forced into retirement and Jack take his spot.”

“I vote according to the dictates of my conscience, and that is certainly factored in,” he went on. “If someone has a religious objection and espouses it in a loving way per Christian teaching I have no problem with it, although I may disagree with them. If they aren’t coming from that angle, then I do not respect them and will not vote for them. There is no virtue in being vulgar and ill-informed.”

And Sylvester has no issue with the church denying Holy Communion to politicians who support abortion, or if it were to happen, to him for being gay. He said the church is there to make moral decisions. But the issue would trouble him personally if gays were denied communion. He also said that early on in the process of coming out he struggled with his sexuality and church teachings.

“Sure when I was first coming out, when the issue was if I was gay or not, it was a struggle then,” he said. “The biggest thing was whether you believe people are born that way or if it is a perversion. I don’t believe it is a perversion. I believe it to be perfectly natural. Everybody knows themselves. You have feelings that way and you are the only person who can decipher it.”