I share some of Eugene's concerns, expressed in his post below, that certain aspects of the gay rights movement (which I too generally support) may pose a threat to civil liberties.

But I don't think that the firing of Robert Smith, the Maryland appointee to the Washington Metro Board, for calling gays "sexual devian[ts]" is a good illustration of the point. Certainly, very few would argue that Smith should have kept his job had he referred to people in interracial relaionships as "racial deviants" or used derogatory language about blacks or Jews. And this would be true despite the fact that Smith's views on blacks, Jews, and interracial marriage have no more connection to his job than his views on gays. The political and social views of high-ranking officials often influence their policy decisions, and government could not function with even modest effectiveness if these officials could not chosen at least in part based on their ideological orientation.

Furthermore, it is not clear to me that Smith's views "have absolutely nothing to do with running trains and buses," as he claims. The DC area has a large gay population and many of them presumably take Metro "trains and buses." There is good reason to assume that a Metro Board member with Smith's views would be less likely to enforce policies against antigay discrimination in public transport than one who is not a homophobe. At any rate, since there is unlikely to be a shortage of nonbigoted people willing to take this cushy patronage appointment, Governor Ehrlich was right not to take a risk on Smith.

I will consider Eugene's broader point about the gay rights movement in my next post.

Although I am skeptical about the particular example that occasioned it, I agree with Eugene's general point that some aspects of the gay rights agenda may pose dangers to individual rights that are important even to people who do hate gays or oppose the gay rights movement as such.

This poses a dilemma for libertarians (and some conservatives) who support the principle of equality for gays but worry about some of the potential slippery slope effects of victories for the gay rights movement. For example, I personally support gay marriage and the abolition of antigay discrimination by government. At the same time, I would oppose imposing similar antidiscrimination laws on the private sector, particularly on religious and civil society groups. And there is a nontrivial danger that those elements of the gay rights agenda that I support will, if adopted, lead to the enactment of those that I oppose.

However, I doubt that the right approach for those concerned about the civil liberties of people with antigay views is to oppose the gay rights agenda across the board. If you do not oppose A in and of itself, but are just concerned that it might lead to B, the right strategy to adopt will sometimes be to make a deal with the pro-A forces, pledging support for A in exchange for safeguards against B. This is an especially attractive approach if A is likely to be enacted sooner or later anyway, but the advocates of A need your backing in order to win sooner.

We seem to be in precisely this position with respect to the gay rights movement, which is highly likely to continue gaining ground, but cannot succeed quickly against determined and united opposition from the right. If conservatives and those libertarians who care more about the civil liberties issues than about gay rights oppose the gay agenda root and branch, then the gay rights movement will owe them nothing and will have no incentive to take conservative or libertarian concerns into account. The fact that most conservatives and libertarians either opposed the civil rights movement (as the National Review conservatives did) or were indifferent to it (as were many libertarians at the time) is one of the reasons why that movement took on such a left-wing statist cast. It is also one reason why most African-Americans support liberal statism even now. The conservatives (and to a lesser extent libertarians) of today are in danger of repeating the mistakes of their predecessors.

If, on the other hand, libertarians and those conservatives whose primary concern is the civil liberties impact rather than opposition to gays for its own sake support gay rights but make that support conditional on providing safeguards for civil liberties, there is a much better chance of a positive outcome for all concerned. In addition to the straightforward quid pro quo bargaining involved, homosexuals and their supporters are more likely to take conservative and libertarian concerns seriously if they do not regard the latter as implacable enemies.

Note that there are two distinct causal mechanisms at work here. One is pure interest-group bargaining: conservatives can persuade gay rights advocates to prevent B in exchange for support for A. But there is also a psychological dynamic under which gays and the political right could develop a more positive (or at least less negative) image of each other over time, thus making it easier to take each other's concerns seriously.

None of these points are likely to persuade those conservatives (and perhaps a few libertarians) who simply oppose gay rights across the board on the merits. But they should provide food for thought to those who generally support gay equality or are indifferent to it, but worry about its slippery slope effects.

Many people, including some commenters on my most recent post, don't see why we should ever fire government officials because of their political and ideological views. Even if an official is a racist, homophobe, communist, etc., perhaps they should not be fired for this unless and until there is proof that their objectionable views affect their job performance. In some cases, this may well be the right approach - particularly if there is little opportunity for the official to implement his biased views or if the job is an important one and it is hard to find an equally competent replacement.

However, there is good reason to fire officials for their views in at least some situations. In some cases, the "wait and see" approach is simply too dangerous. For example, if a key CIA operative is revealed to be an adherent of Al Qaeda's ideology, it is theoretically possible that he will carry out his duties effectively despite his views (e.g. - perhaps he cares more about career advancement than about advancing his views). But given the grave risks involved, it would be foolish to wait and see. Even where matters of life and death are not involved, the costs of ignoring an official's views might still be high. For example, if we do not fire a racist official in a position to discriminate against African-Americans, he might take actions that expose the government to expensive liability suits and possibly poison the state's relationship with the black community. Even if he is later fired after the fact, the damage he has done might difficult or impossible to repair.

Along these lines, it is interesting that there is far less controversy about hiring officials based on ideological views than about firing. For example, nearly everyone takes it for granted that a Republican administration will appoint mostly conservative officials, while a Democratic one will appointly most liberals. The administration could engage in ideologically neutral hiring and later fire those officials whose views lead them to take actions contrary to the administration's agenda. But few would argue that that is the right approach to hiring in government. If this is true as to hiring, why not firing as well?

Not all officials with deeply objectionable views should be fired. Whether or not do so depends on the likelihood that they can cause serious harm, the difficulty of finding a competent replacement, and other similar considerations. But such firings should not be categorically rejected.

Since I am a professor at a state university, it is inevitable that some readers would like to know the implications of this argument for the hiring of academics at state institutions. In my view, ideologically neutral hiring is far more desirable in academia than in most other types of government employment because one of the functions of academics is to engage in wideranging debate and research, a function that would be undermined by ideological hiring criteria. On the other hand, the job of most other appointed officials is to implement laws enacted by the legislature or carry out the policy agenda of their elected superiors. Thus, for most government jobs, there are likely to be greater benefits and less harm from ideologically based hiring and firing than in the case of professors. Is that a self-interested distinction? Quite possibly. But I still think it's valid!

One major argument against my proposal for a compromise between gay rights advocates and those conservatives and libertarians who are not implacably antigay is that the latter group is too small to matter. After all, everyone knows that conservatives are categorically against anything that seems pro-gay, while libertarians are too small a group to count. Right? Sometimes, however, what we all think we know turns out to be wrong. Conservatives are not monolothic on gay rights issues and libertarians are not as negligible a factor in American politics as they may seem.

A recent Pew survey show that there is considerable conservative support for at least some items on the gay rights agenda. 36% of self-described "conservative Republicans" support allowing gays to serve openly in the military, 30% of Republicans (and 20% of conservative Republicans) support gay adoption rights, and only 41% of Republicans say they "strongly oppose" gay marriage rights. A 2005 survey shows that 41% of Republicans and 31% of self-described "conservatives" support gay civil unions. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the same survey showed that 19% of Republicans and 14% of conservatives actually support gay marriage.

By contrast with conservatives, no one doubts that most libertarians (probably a large majority) strongly support much of the gay rights agenda. However, it is often asserted that there are too few libertarians for this to make a difference. However, as David Boaz points out, various studies have shown that people with a broadly libertarian outlook (favoring strict limits on government power on both "economic" and "social" issues) constitute as much as 20 percent of the population. Only a small proportion of these people are closely familiar with libertarian ideology, but the same can be said of most of those who describe themselves in surveys as "liberal" or "conservative." They too are not sophisticated ideologues, as I have pointed out in my own work on political ignorance. And even if we discount libertarian voters, there are numerous influential libertarian intellectuals, academics, and policy wonks. Many of these people have influence that goes far beyond their fellow libertarians.

There is no denying the fact that most conservatives oppose gay equality and that libertarians hardly dominate American politics. However, it is also the case that there is more than enough conservative and libertarian support for key aspects of the gay rights agenda to make cooperation between some right-wingers and gay rights advocates worthwhile. As I argued in my previous post, gays will need substantial conservative and libertarian support in order to prevail quickly on the issues they care about the most. Conservatives and libertarians will need to negotiate with gays in order to limit the possible harmful slippery slope effects of some pro-gay policies. There is at least a modest-size pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow coalition. Hopefully, we can go out and get it!