Gay GOP leader warns of a cultural war within party

[Kuchana]

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/08/30/gay_gop_leader_warns_of_a_cultural_war_within_part y/

Gay GOP leader warns of a cultural war within party
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff | August 30, 2004

NEW YORK -- Patrick C. Guerriero was standing in the shade beside the MSNBC stage in Herald Square yesterday morning, trying to keep from sweating. The executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans was made-up, camera-ready, and a little edgy.

Recent events have put the head of the nation's largest group of gay Republicans on the front line in the country's current culture war over gay marriage. While the Log Cabin Republicans worked hard for President George W. Bush when he was a candidate in 2000, events since then have put the group at odds with the president.

Guerriero and his members are angry about Bush's endorsement of a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in February and incensed over a GOP platform that not only supports the amendment, but seems to preclude civil unions and domestic partnership benefits. They are angry that such moderates as Governor George E. Pataki of New York and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, showcased as prime-time speakers at the convention, appear to have no influence over the party's official positions on abortion and gay marriage.

The 36-year-old former Massachusetts legislator and Melrose mayor is threatening to withhold an endorsement of Bush this year. An official decision is to be made just after the convention. Guerriero refused to say yesterday which way the group would go. He does not know whether he will even vote on that issue. He has been warning that Bush, in making his pitch to social conservatives, is in danger of losing the 1 million gays and lesbians who cast ballots for him in 2000. Guerriero has been willing to say all of this publicly, and increasingly often.

''This is much more important than one election and one president," Guerriero said as he waited to go on camera. ''It's about whether there's a place in the American family for gays and lesbians. What does it say when the campaign is running this radical-right strategy to bring out 4 million evangelicals, yet Americans are going to see only our best friends and allies in prime time? This is a precursor to a cultural war within our party."

On television, Guerriero said the GOP is being ''hijacked by the radical right."

Those are the kind of fighting words not often heard from Republican loyalists these days. By talking this way, Guerriero has publicly punctured the GOP's storied party unity, making himself into something of a skunk at this year's Republican national garden party.

It is not a comfortable position for the onetime candidate for lieutenant governor in Massachusetts.

''Oh, Kathy," he said to an adviser before another round of interviews. ''Can't I go back to worrying about the streets being plowed in Melrose?"

Before his first media appearance yesterday, Guerriero was hoarse. He had come to New York to try to persuade Republicans to publicly criticize the proposed federal amendment banning gay marriage and the social-issues portion of the party's platform. It reads, in part: ''We believe and the social science confirms that the well-being of children is best accomplished in the environment of the home, nurtured by their mother and father, anchored by the bonds of marriage."

Yesterday afternoon, the Log Cabin Republicans, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, hosted ''The Big Tent Event" at a Bryant Park restaurant, to honor social moderates, such as Pataki, Schwarzenegger, and former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld. The audience whooped loudly whenever a speaker hit at Republican conservatives. That occurred when Bloomberg said, ''I don't think we should ever use the Constitution to drive wedges between us."

At a strategy session before the party in his hotel suite yesterday, Guerriero and his advisers were running through the sound bites he would use during the event. This week, it was clear, was to be as much a war of public relations as ideology.

''That is a huge value, to have Pataki walking around with me, talking to a lesbian delegate," Guerriero told the group. ''That's the money shot."

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Mr.Lum]

I hope the party falls apart.

[Arex]

I hope the party falls apart.
The country would be more tolerant if it did. No more having devisive issues played out during prime time solely for the political gain of a few who, when it comes down to it, care more about the $$$ than the issues themselves.

RX

[Mr.Lum]

The Republicans are against my values and my people. I don't use this word often but these are some "infidels" if I ever saw them.

But you know, I don't think it'd be anymore tolorant if the party were to breakdown. I think these snakes would find a way into government and plus these people are still in America. There's a lot of them too. Government would be better off most definitly if they just stayed home though.

[lethal]

Ironically, a Republican congressman from Virginia just resigned after allegations surfaced that he is gay.

Like McGreevey, he's married. He's also a military vet. I wonder if he would have stepped down if he was not gay.

[Faithless]

Is there that much of a divide in the Republican party on this issue?

I would think that they would just assume allow all the gays to leave the party -- now days.

And so you have Republican gays trying to put a positive spin on the Bush tapes. Why? Yeah, he said maybe one favorable thing in the tapes, but overall the tone sure sounds anit-gay.

Secret tapes shed light on Bush and gays: Friend who recorded calls was fired from White House in 1990 (http://www.houstonvoice.com/2005/2-25/news/national/tapes.cfm)

By JOE CREA * Friday, February 25, 2005

The man who secretly taped phone conversations with President Bush in 1998 was fired from the George H.W. Bush administration in 1990 because he objected to gay activists participating in two White House bill signings, according to media reports from the time.

Doug Wead, a former special assistant to the first President Bush, and the man who secretly recorded private conversations with then Gov. George W. Bush in 1998, was reportedly fired after objecting to the presence of gay leaders at two presidential bill signing ceremonies: the Hate Crimes Statistics Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Washington Times and the Washington Blade both reported the story back in 1990. The Washington Times reported on its front page that Wead worked as a liaison to anti-abortion and other “conservative movement” groups and was dismissed for publicly criticizing the inclusion of the gay leaders.

The Blade later reported that a White House spokesperson confirmed that Wead was fired but would not give a reason for the move.

Wead, who this week claimed that he was not fired, said he secretly recorded his conversations with Bush because he viewed him as a “historical figure,” according to the New York Times.

Wead, who just published a book on presidential childhoods, stands to benefit from the publicity surrounding his actions, but has denied that was the motive for releasing the tapes.

Wead did not respond to Blade inquiries.


Worried about conservatives
Excerpts from the tapes, made public in last Sunday’s New York Times, indicate that Bush was concerned in 1998 that the social conservative base of the Republican Party would object to his unwillingness to condemn homosexuality during his campaign.

According to the tapes, Bush sensed that James Robison, a Texas evangelical minister, wanted Bush “to attack homosexuals.”

In response to Robison’s request, Bush said, “I’m not going to kick gays, because I’m a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?”

In the tapes, the future president expressed his now-familiar opposition to same-sex marriage.

“Gay marriage, I am against that. Special rights, I am against that,” Bush said. He also expressed frustration over one conservative supporter’s public declaration that Bush would not hire gay people.

“No, what I said was, I wouldn’t fire gays,” Bush said on the tapes.

The future president also said it hurt the Republican Party when the GOP bashed gays.

David Greer, a Bush appointee to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS who was a part of the “Austin 12,” a group of 12 gay Republicans who met with Bush in Texas during the 2000 presidential campaign, said he thought it was poignant that Bush would defend gays in a conversation with Wead, a man who had staked out anti-gay positions.

“Bush’s remarks [to Wead] were sort of a smaller Sister Souljah moment,” Greer said, referring to 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.

“He’s clearly thought about these issues without any advisers advising him on what he should think. He also went after another divide in the Republican Party… if we are going to base legislation on biblical morals, where do we start and stop because we are all sinners. He’s sort of getting at an underlying principle of Christianity: ‘How can you be put in the position to judge, Christian right?’”

Republican activist Carl Schmid, another member of the Austin 12, said the recordings show Bush’s consistency on gay issues.

“This was a long time ago, and it confirms what he has been saying all along, that it’s not good for Republicans to bash gay people and that he is against special rights,” Schmid said. “He even said some things in our meeting that showed us he was not 100 percent in support of the social conservatives. He told us he wasn’t going to their convention because they were ‘too conservative.’ He wasn’t overtly supportive of them. That confirms the real George Bush.”

Bob Kabel, a board member of the gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans who was elected last fall as chair of the D.C. Republican Party, said the recordings demonstrate that Bush “has always been a very moderate guy who was very determined not to cave into some of the forces at work in that campaign.”

“I think his comments [in the tapes] are really genuine,” Kabel said. “It’s what a lot of gay Republicans who support him say, that he is genuinely a very moderate, decent man who cares about people.”


Bush actions don’t atch rhetoric?
But not all gays praised the president’s 1998 remarks.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said the only way to evaluate elected officials is by what they do, not what they say.

“While he may say things like, ‘I don’t want to kick the gays,’ that’s all this administration has been about since Day 1,” Foreman said. “To me, the remarks really underscore the lack of personal conviction that President Bush really has. I don’t care if he’s a nice guy. His policies are awful. So many people say, ‘Well, he doesn’t have a problem with gay issues.’ I don’t care about him. I care about his administration.”

David Smith, vice president of policy and strategy for the Human Rights Campaign, expressed similar sentiments.

“I don’t know what the president meant by ‘kicking the gays,’” Smith said. “Certainly, I don’t think that’s what his current thinking is based on his support for changing the U.S. Constitution to make sure that gay relationships are not recognized in any shape or form. Seems to be a pretty big kick to me. …

“There is an overt and covert hostility toward GLBT Americans by this president, and exhibit A is his support for this amendment.”

Scott Huch, another member of the Austin 12, said the president’s remarks reveal a political calculation.

“It’s evident to me that the issue of basic equality for gay people could be so easily viewed by elected officials as a political poker chip, something used to gain votes,” Huch said. “I know he doesn’t support gay marriage, but there was no need for him to support the constitutional amendment.”


Remarks in context
Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, urged gays to put the remarks in context.

“The landscape of GLBT issues has changed dramatically since 1998,” Guerriero said. “We are in a new day and those comments offer some hope as to where the president’s heart may be.

“They are a window into a man who seems uneasy with the notion of picking on part of the American family but those sentiments were said at a different time, historically, at a different moment in our journey toward fairness and equality.”

Several gay Republicans said they hoped that, based on the president’s remarks about gays, Bush would move in his second term to tone down the anti-gay rhetoric of his party.

“We have four more years, and I’m hopeful he will reach out and show the real George Bush,” Schmid said. “We’ve gone through half of his presidency and there’s been some good and a lot of negative things.”

Kabel said he was uncertain if gay rights issues would see any progress during Bush’s second term but added that there will be a lot of “moderating in a whole lot of areas.”

Foreman said despite his criticisms, he hopes that Bush is more willing to defend gay men and lesbians in the future.

“Hope does indeed spring eternal, and he does not have to run for re-election,” Foreman said. “Therefore he doesn’t have to endlessly give in to the forces of the religious and political intolerance. There is now an opportunity for him to move in the right direction. I really mean that. Hope does spring eternal.”

[Grasshopper]

Gay GOP leader warns of a cultural war within party

Ah, note to the "gay GOP leader" guy - in this upcoming "culture war" within the Republican party, guess what...

..... YOU

......ARE

......GOING

......TO

......LOSE.

:biggrin:

[Yeahman]

The country would be more tolerant if it did. No more having devisive issues played out during prime time solely for the political gain of a few who, when it comes down to it, care more about the $$$ than the issues themselves.
Spoken like a true totalitarian.
I, for one, don't want to see the Democratic party fall apart even if it means that we'll be a more tolerant nation without the hateful liberals. I want to see strong parties that are able to challenge each other.

[kimpossible]

How would either party falling apart rid the nation of anything? You'd still have the same people with the same beliefs keeping the same systems in place they just wouldn't have the label Democrat or Republican.

I don't want either falling apart but I do want more parties to gain strength.

[Jung Rhee]

Gay Republicans? isn't that an oxymoron?

[Fireblade]

Gay Republicans? isn't that an oxymoron?

I though so too.... until I met one.

[Jung Rhee]

I though so too.... until I met one.

Well he/ she is just a moron. :wink:

[Faithless]

Here's a fine "how do you do":

Log Cabin Republicans sued for $15 million (http://www.washblade.com/blog/index.cfm?start=3/29/05&end=4/5/05)

The Log Cabin Republicans, busy with the organization's national conference in New Orleans, must have hoped that someone was playing a cruel April's Fools prank on Friday. That is not the case.

Dwight Lodge, the former Chief Operating Officer of LCR and Liberty Education Forum, sued both organizations today in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia according to his attorney, Lisa Alexis Jones. The suit seeks $15 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination, negligent supervision and defamation.

The allegations in the suit, if proven, could be very bad news for Executive Director Partick Guerriero:

By October 2004, however, Mr. Lodge became concerned about improper and well-documented business and financial practices of LCR/LEF’s Executive Director, Patrick Guerriero. These practices included but were not limited to: misuse of restricted funds, reclassification of funds and creation of false reports to obtain matching funds, and the reclassification of funds to hide losses incurred by certain programs for the purpose of misleading the board.

Mr. Lodge understood that those practices, if true, were not only inconsistent with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices but potentially exposed LCR/LEF to liability under federal and state.

When Mr. Lodge, consistent with his own fiduciary responsibilities, presented his concerns to Mr. Guerriero on or about Nov. 12, 2004, Mr. Guerriero cavalierly and inexplicably dismissed Mr. Lodge’s concerns.

Within three weeks, Mr. Guerriero began disseminating defamatory rumors of Mr. Lodge’s purported "drug use," along with curiously vague and sudden allegations of Mr. Lodge’s supposed "poor" job performance. These rumors were circulated around LCR’s offices throughout the country.

On Dec. 22, 2004, citing an alleged and previously undocumented substandard job performance, Mr. Guerriero terminated Mr. Lodge’s employment contract.

Guerriero could not be reached for comment.

Jones confirmed with me this evening that there were unsuccesful settlement discussions prior to the filing of the suit.

According to a page about Lodge still posted on LCR's Web site, Lodge became COO in January 2004. Additionally, the site claims:

Lodge was recently recognized by President George W. Bush and nominated by the U.S. Senate to serve as a representative of Texas on the Presidential Roundtable. Lodge also received the Medal of Freedom in 2003, the highest honor that the U.S. Senate can bestow.

At a time when the gay organization best situated to influence Republicans could be working for gay rights, it looks like it will be busy fighting a lawsuit that could threaten its very existence. Even if you don't like LCR, it's hard to see how this suit helps anyone but the foes of gay rights, and, of course, Dwight Lodge.