Rob Smith wants the world to know it’s okay to be a black, gay Republican.
He lives in New York City with his husband and is the author of new book Confessions of a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Soldier.
In it, he describes his upbringing as being very ‘liberal’ but reveals he’s coming out as a Republican due to toxic call-out culture.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘What I hope is that somebody that’s black and gay and conservative is normal. But you have to understand that I am not the first black, gay Republican.
‘I’m just the one that’s going to take the heat for saying it publicly,’ he said.
Kanye West and call-out culture
Speaking on the recent backlash to Kanye West, Smith said it was right to call him out for his comments about slavery for black people being ‘a choice’ but the call-outs went too far.
He said: ‘I think that it was very easy for people to hop on those comments and focus on those comments to completely discredit everything else that he had said before.’
Smith believes call-out culture means people are afraid to speak their minds in case of public backlash. But Kanye West has done so much for black culture so to discredit him completely does him a disservice.
He said: ‘For me, as a gay man and a black man… somebody has to start the conversation – specifically with LGBTQ people – to say being a Democrat is not a sign of morality and being a Republican is not a sign of evil.
‘We can work on both sides to advance this idea of LGBTQ equality, we just have to figure out what that is,’ he said.
Donald Trump in 2011. | Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
Smith revealed he didn’t actually vote in the 2016 election because he didn’t believe in either candidate.
He identifies more as a ‘fiscal conservative’ and says he aligns with the Republican stance on terrorism, illegal immigration and having a strong military presence.
Smith said: ‘Just because I am a black person who identifies as conservative does not mean that I am uninterested in any ideas that are intended to uplift the black community.’
