Coming Out of the Closet
by Austin Ruse, Crisis Magazine:
On ‘coming out’ as a Conservative …
[…] There are friends from those days before I came so thoroughly out of the closet who no longer speak to me. There is Blake, one of my closest friends in Washington, D.C., and now a big deal in Hollywood. He won’t even talk to me.
I tracked down Mitch, a political mentor in leftist politics from university and Washington DC days, and he told me, “Don’t ever contact me again.” He was the one who taught me never to make politics personal.
My former boss at Fortune Magazine said much the same thing. I cannot tell you the number of friends I have lost because of my beliefs. My boss at Fortune noted what must be on the minds of many ex-friends: “What the hell happened to you?”
Homosexuals are celebrated when they come out of the closet. There is a National Coming Out Day. They are brave. But, I ask, how brave is it to turn toward the applause? Those who come out conservative—and more than that, those who come out socially conservative, pro-life, or pro-family—are the brave ones. They lose social standing, some lose jobs, and all lose friends.
Please know I am not whining. I have no regrets in doing the work I do, holding and expressing the beliefs I hold. The social left wants to drive us into the closet; they practically demand that we feel socially isolated, all alone. People will do nearly anything not to be alone. This is a page right out of Soviet propaganda and mind control.
Hats off to some of my friends from those olden days who knew me as a liberal and stayed my friend as I moved right: David LaGesse from high school and college who became a very successful journalist; Bobby Love, long-ago managing editor of Rolling Stone, now running the AARP Magazine; and Scott Clarkson, a federal judge with whom I cut my political teeth in high school. All are on the left, and all remain good friends of mine.
To all those who remain in the closet, to you, I say, come out. It may cost you, but the closet is a lonely place, and, after all, your treasure is someplace else. You will save lives. You will save your country. And the soul you save may be your own.
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