News
Gay Republicans Battle Back
PlanetOut News
February 17, 1999
SUMMARY: It's "no more Mr/Ms Nice GOP" for Log Cabin and other moderates,
who intend to confront the party's powerful religious-right.
The Republican National Committee has launched a new project of outreach to
Hispanics and African-Americans, the New Majority Council, whose national
vice chair Faye Anderson joined the national gay and lesbian Log Cabin
Republicans executive director Rich Tafel and Republicans for Choice
spokesperson Ann Stone for a joint press conference on February 16. Log Cabin Republicans last
month announced their Strategy 2000, "to educate Republicans who want an
inclusive party and confront those who don't," in the words of national
Board Chair Robert Stears -- and with Presidential hopefuls already lining
up, the struggle to shift the national party away from the anti-gay
positions of the religious right is already well underway.
Tafel says the "hateful and frightening face" of the party grew out of the
"Southern strategy" that Richard Nixon called "positive polarization," the
use of fear-mongering against a minority to mobilize a majority. He blames
that approach for "ushering in spates of gay-bashing, intolerance toward
legal immigrants and declarations of 'a Christian nation,' essentially
telling Jews and those outside of fundamentalist Christianity to get lost."
To Tafel and many others, the 1998 election results are the handwriting on
the wall that the Republican Party must become more inclusive, particularly
on social issues, to have any hope of future victories. At the press
conference,
Tafel said the party's "rank and file are so depressed by the state of the
party
that they might bring back Newt Gingrich." He said the party's impeachment
campaign had both given it the image of the "anti-everything party" and
made it vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy, using as an example Representative
Bob Barr's introduction of a "defense of marriage" bill while himself on his
third marriage.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Representative Tom Davis
(R-VA) last month became the first high-ranking Republican Congressmember to
address a chapter of Log Cabin, signaling hope for a new level of acceptance
for the oft-rejected group. He told the Northern Virginia chapter on January
20 that, "If we are to be a majority party ... if we are to step ahead, we
need to be a party of inclusion," and specifically mentioned the need to
welcome more gays and lesbians into the ranks. Northern Virginia Log Cabin Republicans
President Daniel Blatt, who believes there should be room in the Republican
Party for both Log Cabin Republicans and the religious right, said, "Our agenda with the
Republican Party is very small: Let us in the party and don't bash us."
Strategy 2000, announced January 20, calls for Log Cabin Republicans action on an
unprecedented scale "to educate every Republican Presidential candidate for
the 2000 GOP nomination on a basic set of core inclusive principles"
including "non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, continued
support of GOP AIDS funding priorities and no anti-gay speeches or signs at
the 2000 GOP Convention" -- and to "work aggressively to inform the voting
public on the positions of every GOP Presidential candidate on these core
principles" and "publicly expose and confront all those who use gay-bashing
as a platform in their campaigns." Log Cabin Republicans also plans a series of trainings in
how to combat the anti-gay extreme right at the grass-roots level, as well
as training openly gay Republicans to run for elected office at every level
and within the party. The overall plan requires raising over $1,000,000, the
greatest financial challenge of the organization's history. By February 10,
Presidential hopeful Gary Bauer in his Family Research Council's "Culture
Facts" was already declaring that, "Homosexual activists within the
Republican Party are seeking to short-circuit free speech at the 2000 GOP
Convention" and seeking "to silence opponents of the homosexual special
rights agenda."
What's different about this approach is the aggressive preparation to
publicly confront anti-gay tactics. By and large Log Cabin Republicans members have struggled
to be good team players in the party, despite such insults as Presidential
candidate Bob Dole's return of their campaign contribution and the
Republican Party of Texas denying them entry to the annual statewide
convention. But with the 1998 election results they believe back up their
position, the group is ready to fight back. Log Cabin Republicans also commissioned a poll in
November which found that a majority of voters would be "more likely" to
support a Republican Presidential candidate in 2000 who "confronted the
religious right rather than pandered to them."
The pro-inclusion position of Log Cabin Republicans and other moderate Republicans was
bolstered last week, when that leader of the now-defunct Moral Majority
Jerry Falwell undertook to "out" the Tinky Winky character of the children's
TV show "Teletubbies." Tafel's response, in a statement that also pointed to
Pat Robertson's taking over from Donald Hodel as president of the Christian
Coalition as evidence of the religious right's "self-destruction," was, "How
much more embarrassment will it take for the Republican leadership to move
away from these people? I have advice for all the Republican officials who
were shaking their heads when they read about this today. How about you stop
inviting Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to speak at our conventions from
now on?" Moderate Republican New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman also said
this week, "We have to get away from the perception that all we care about
is whether or not Teletubbies are gay." Republican strategist, pundit and
consultant Mary Matalin promised on NBC's "Meet the Press" on February 14
that she "will demonize Republicans that gay bash in 2000. I'm not going to
be officially working for anybody. But if we don't get off of that, we don't
deserve to be a majority party, that's for sure."
However, the right is unquestionably still powerful. In early February, a
half-dozen Republican Presidential hopefuls met with the Committee for the
Restoration of American Values, an umbrella group of religious right
organizations, to undergo "litmus testing" on 79 points in search of the
group's campaign support. Among those points were civil rights for gays and
lesbians, which of course the Committee expected its candidate to vigorously
oppose. Bauer was there, along with Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), Representative
John Kasich (R-OH), 1996 candidate Steve Forbes, pundit Alan Keyes, and by
phone former Vice President Dan Quayle. Of them, Tafel said, "This was
nothing more than a ceremony of kowtowing to a group that is dragging the
Republican Party down in the eyes of the voting public. It was just a beauty
contest to see which Republican Presidential candidate could win the prize
as the most unelectable." Tafel also praised those candidates who missed the
meeting: Texas Governor George Bush, former Tennessee Governor Lamar
Alexander and Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Elizabeth Dole, wife of the 1996
GOP candidate who may throw her own hat into the ring next time, was not
invited to attend.