One gay voter's
change of heart leads him to a change of party.
To Houston
voters, Noel Freeman was just one of hundreds of volunteers
who flooded the streets of Harris County, Texas, to turn
people out for Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday
night.
“It’s been a whirlwind tour here this
week,” said Freeman, who also served as an
official for the caucus.
What people
likely didn’t realize is that Freeman also wears
another hat -- president of the Log Cabin Republicans
chapter in Houston.
Freeman had told
LCR national that he would be stepping down from his
position following the Texas primary. “I’m
working on my letter of resignation, and I’m
going to submit it to national within the next couple
of days,” he said Thursday afternoon.
Freeman
represents a much-talked-about class of crossover and
independent voters that are attracted to Obama. A
recent Pew poll found that Obama edges out McCain
among independents by 49% to 43% in a general election
match-up -- a figure that does not account for Republicans
who might also vote for the Illinois senator. The
Clinton camp argues that GOP voters will back away
from Obama once they are more familiar with his voting
record and progressive stances on issues such as gun
control.
As president of
LCR since the August of 2006, Freeman had been struggling
with the idea of changing parties.
“I’ve thought long and hard about becoming a
Democrat,” Freeman said, “I believe that
of all the candidates out there, Barack Obama is the one
candidate who is most sincerely interested in healing some
of the partisan damage that has been caused to our
nation over the past 12 to 16 years.”
And if Clinton is
the nominee? “I haven’t decided (what I will
do), but I won’t vote for Hillary
Clinton,” said Freeman, adding that he doesn’t
believe Clinton is interested in bridging partisan divides.
Freeman’s
unique military history also factored into his decision. He
spent four years on active duty as an intel analyst in the
Air Force and was a ROTC cadet at Texas A&M
University before being discharged in 2000 under
“don’t ask, don’t tell.”
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Kerry Eleveld contributed reporting to this article.