News

Iowa Anti-Gay Rally Update: Candidates Split on Attending Des Moines Event

Log Cabin Blasts Alexander For Pandering to Anti-Gay Group; Forbes, Dole, Lugar Avoid Event

February 9, 1996

(Washington, D.C.) As the final weekend before the Iowa Caucuses nears, the GOP field is splitting over whether to attend a nationally televised anti-gay rally in Des Moines on Saturday.

Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest gay Republican organization, issued a warning to all Republican presidential candidates earlier today that attending the event, billed by the anti-gay group, Colorado for Family Values as a rally to "protect marriage," would be "a disastrous mistake."

LCR has subsequently confirmed that, despite these warnings, candidates Lamar Alexander, Phil Gramm and Pat Buchanan will be keeping the event on their campaign schedules. Candidates Robert Dole, Steve Forbes and Richard Lugar, however, have confirmed through their campaign offices to LCR that they will not be attending.

"Phil Gramm and Pat Buchanan taking the stage at this rally is no surprise since they could never win a general election," said Richard Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "But Lamar Alexander has shown how desperate he has become by pandering to this vicious, anti-gay group, and I think it will seriously hurt him if he even makes it out of Iowa."

The rally will be held at the First Federated Church in Des Moines at 7:00 pm Central Time, and will be broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN.