Log Cabin Republicans leader Patrick Guerriero walked out of
the convention hall during President Bush’s acceptance speech when he reiterated
his strong support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. (File photo
by Luis Gomez)
No NOD from LCR Some of the events cited by the Log Cabin Republicans
to justify withholding endorsement of President Bush:
President Bush endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment
on Feb. 24: “Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious
and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society,”
President Bush told Roman Catholic leaders during a June
4 visit to the Vatican they need to push American Catholic bishops to be more
aggressive politically on family issues, especially the FMA.
The Bush-Cheney re-election campaign energizes churches
across the country by providing them with issue guides and urging pastors
to hold voter registration drives.
In June, President Bush met in the Oval Office with one
of the leading proponents of the FMA, James Dobson of Focus on the Family.
Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political consultant, gave
the commencement address at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.
President Bush supports the Marriage Protection Act, which
would bar federal courts from deciding whether the 1996 Defense of Marriage
Act is constitutional.
The president opposes federal hate crimes legislation,
the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA] and any changes to the military’s
‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.
Ending nearly six months of speculation, the Log Cabin Republicans announced this
week that the nation’s largest gay GOP group will not endorse President
Bush’s re-election bid, in large part because of the president’s strong
support for the Federal Marriage Amendment.
The group’s board voted 22-2 to withhold an endorsement of the president,
deciding instead to shift financial and political resources toward more inclusive
Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Tuesday’s decision marks the first time Log Cabin, a national gay GOP
group, has not endorsed a Republican candidate for president since it opened
its national office in 1993.
The group backed the president during the 2000 election and applauded his first
18 months in office after he appointed several gays to government posts and
signed into law after Sept. 11 the Mychal Judge Act, which provides payment
to the beneficiaries of public safety officers killed in the line of duty who
are not legally recognized as spouses.
But four years after endorsing Bush in 2000, Log Cabin officials said, they
have determined the president has veered profoundly from his pledge to be a
“uniter not a divider” and has caved to the fundamentalist Christian
elements of the Republican Party.
“This is our Sister Souljah moment,” said Chris Barron, Log Cabin’s
political director, referring to candidate Bill Clinton’s decision in
his 1992 campaign to repudiate strident comments made by rapper Sister Souljah,
making him appear more centrist to average voters.
“And saying that, we are good, loyal Republicans,” Barron said.
“We have walked across hot coals for this party. We have asked for little
in return, and this was one of those moments where we must stand tall.
“We also believe that this is truly being loyal to the party. Going down
the path of these culture wars will only set the party on the wrong side of
history,” he said.
Democrats seize onLog Cabin snub
Democrats quickly seized upon Log Cabin’s announcement as an opportunity
to urge gay Republicans to support the Democratic ticket this year.
“The GLBT community is focused on defeating a president who believes
gays and lesbians can be fired from their jobs simply because of their sexual
orientation,” said Democratic National Chair Terry McAuliffe in a statement.
“We welcome all GLBT Americans — regardless of party affiliation
— to be a part of our effort to defeat Bush and elect the most pro-gay,
pro-family ticket in the history of presidential politics — John Kerry
and John Edwards.”
Log Cabin officials assert that the non-endorsement of Bush is not an endorsement
of Sen. John Kerry.
“A non-endorsement means just that,” said Bob Kabel, a member of
Log Cabin’s national board of directors. “We don’t oppose
him. Each member should vote his or her conscience. We are not endorsing Kerry.
This action is no way intended to be that.”
But several prominent gay Republicans announced on Wednesday their support
for Kerry.
DNC officials said Wednesday that Steve May, a gay Arizona Republican and former
state legislator, will back Kerry this fall, along with gay D.C.
Councilmember David Catania (R-At-Large), said during a DNC news conference
this week that he has “had it” with the Bush administration and
threw his support behind Kerry.
“I think we will be surprised by a Kerry administration,” Catania
said. “He is a country mile better than Bush, who took the hottest cultural
issue and divided the country right down the middle for crass, partisan purposes.
“This election is about making sure we get a balanced person in office,”
said Catania. “Kerry could take us for a ride, absolutely. Is that ride
going to be worse than four more years of Bush? Absolutely not.”
When asked whether or not he would switch parties, Catania — who was
once one of Bush’s most loyal supporters — said Republican ideology
is a part of his makeup, yet he admitted considerable frustration with his desire
to be an “agent of change” for the party he has called home for
so long.
“I wrestle with this on a daily basis and under these circumstances I
can’t see myself lasting,” Catania said. “This notion of a
‘big tent’ is like being invited to dinner but being told not to
eat. That’s their idea of a ‘big tent.’”
Cheney, Bush differ on FMA
In the days leading up to the Republican National Convention in New York City,
the Bush-Cheney campaign adopted a slightly more moderate tone on gay marriage.
President Bush said during an appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live show
in August that he opposes marriage but if states choose “to provide legal
protections for gays, that’s great, that’s fine.”
Then, at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa on Aug. 25, Vice President Dick
Cheney for the first time acknowledged that his daughter Mary, who also runs
his campaign, is gay.
He added that he differs with Bush and does not support a constitutional amendment
banning gay marriage.
“Freedom means freedom for everyone,” the vice president said of
gay relationships.
But those comments were not enough for Log Cabin officials, who said the president’s
public support on Feb. 24 for a federal constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage went beyond temporary political expediency and led to a nasty backlash
in at least 12 states where anti-gay activists are seeking to amend state constitutions
to prohibit marriage rights for gay couples.
“Initially it was a disappointment, but it became clear they were wedded
to this strategy of getting three or four million fundamentalist Christian voters
to the polls,” Kabel said. “This was not as simple as Bush stating
his support and simply moving on.”
Log Cabin officials said they noticed a “dramatic drop in communication”
with the White House in early February, just before Bush publicly endorsed the
FMA.
Tension over platform
Log Cabin officials said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who helped
finalize the 2004 Republican Party platform, told Patrick Guerriero, Log Cabin’s
executive director, that he thought the language banning not just gay marriage
but any form of recognition of gay relationships was “unnecessary”
and assured Guerriero that he would work to get the language removed.
President Bush announced on Feb.
24 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House his support for the Federal
Marriage Amendment, the key event that caused the Log Cabin Republicans
to withhold its endorsement of his 2004 campaign. (Photo by Susan Walsh/AP)
However the final language, offered up by the conservative Family Research
Council and approved unanimously, stated that in addition to limiting marriage
to heterosexual couples, other forms of “legal recognition and the accompanying
benefits afforded couples should be preserved for that unique and special union
of one man and one woman which has historically been called marriage.”
Social conservatives like Tony Perkins of the FRC have publicly said that Cheney’s
favorable comments about gay marriage energized conservatives to adopt the strict
language.
While gay Republicans expected Bush to reiterate his support for the FMA during
his convention speech last Thursday — which he did — the move still
stung many gays in attendance, including Guerriero, who immediately walked out
of the convention hall, Barron said.
Bush said during his convention speech, “Because the union of a man and
woman deserves an honored place in our society, I support the protection of
marriage against activist judges.” Barron said many of the delegates withheld
applause following the anti-gay remark.
“There was more applause for Bush’s previous comments about protecting
the life of the unborn than the sanctity of marriage,” Barron said.
Some gay Republicans also expressed frustration that Mary Cheney did not appear
on stage with her family at the conclusion of President Bush’s speech
last Thursday.
“Her absence from the stage, for whatever reason, was a powerful moment
for gays and lesbians across the country,” Barron said. “Straight
America doesn’t recognize how stinging it was, but I think that’s
why many gays and lesbians reacted so strongly to her absence.”
Barron said that Log Cabin has an ongoing dialogue with the Republican Party
and that “no one will be surprised” by the group’s move this
week. Barron said the party does care about gay Republicans, which he said was
evident in the moderate prime-time speakers lined up for the convention last
week.
“It’s interesting to listen to social conservatives try to explain
the lack of references to their issues in prime-time,” Barron said. “Well,
sorry, but no one wants to see Marilyn Musgrave sell their issues at 10 p.m.”
Bush campaign officials did not return calls seeking comment.
The president publicly endorsed the FMA in February but reportedly lent his
support in private to Musgrave (R-Colo.), the sponsor of the FMA in the House,
three months earlier.
According to a Scripps Howard News Service report, Musgrave discussed the FMA
with the president aboard Air Force One on Nov. 24, one week after the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court ordered the state legislature to begin issuing marriage
licenses to gay couples there.
Some of the president’s Republican colleagues warned him about the potential
fallout over his position. When sharing a ride with President Bush on Air Force
One in July, Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) told him to, “back off this gay
marriage thing, that it was going to be devastating for him in the Northeast,”
according to a July report in the Boston Globe.
The newspaper reported that Bass said, Bush, “looked at me like I was
crazy.”
Social conservatives react
In a guest commentary for the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com,
Robert Knight, director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate
of Concerned Women for America, wrote that Log Cabin does not belong in the
GOP’s “Big Tent.”
“LCR, which is trying to make the GOP safe for sodomy, first became conflicted
when President Bush endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment,” Knight writes.
“They threw what amounted to a hissy fit, announcing that they weren’t
sure they would back the president in November. Some Log Cabin leaders, such
as District of Columbia City Councilman David Catania, even yanked photos of
the president off the wall. Take that!”
Catania predicted that on Nov. 2 Bush will receive “single digit numbers”
from gay and lesbian voters — contrary to the 25 percent of gay votes
he received from gays in 2000 — adding that the Republican Party has lost
the gay vote for at least 40 years.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics,
said Catania’s position is “exaggerated,” adding that all
it takes to win over gay votes is one Republican candidate “who has a
different approach and ideology,” like former New York Mayor Rudolph W.
Giuliani who has a strong pro-gay record and is rumored to be planning a run
for the presidency in 2008.
“Giuliani is different,” Sabato said. “Now, there would be
a chance for the [gay] issue to be debated and discussed fully and for perhaps
a moderate Republican to be nominated. That would certainly change things.”
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by the Washington Blade. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
