Cat and Mouse
Right Wing Bares Claws at GOP Convention, Pounces on Gays
By Lisa Keen
Born-again incumbent president George W. Bush wasn't about to yield to a more moderate stance on marriage equality and other civil-rights issues.
Prior to the Republican National Convention, twins Barbara and Jenna Bush said they might attend their hair dresser's same-sex wedding.
The vice president's daughter, Mary Cheney, and her partner, Heather Poe couldn't have been happy over the verbal bashing Mary (leaning her head toward Poe) took from the likes of perennial and über-right-wing candidate Alan Keyes.
The Human Rights Campaign had four trucks roaming the streets of Manhattan with this message.
Lynne and Dick Cheney say they support and love their lesbian daughter, but even so, although Cheney disagrees with Bush on the infamousFederal Marriage Amendment, he has indicated he'll stand by his "commander in chief."
A very happy delegate
Protestors had a blast ragging on Bush and Cheney.
First lady Laura Bush
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger was a hit. He was also a no-show at the Log Cabin Republicans reception.
The 2004 Republican National Convention was not what Log Cabin Republicans hoped for. The national gay Republican group had looked for some moderate views from the podium; instead, they got vicious slams against same-sex marriage. As Log Cabin's national political director Christopher Barron put it: The convention, for gays, was like "A Tale of Two Cities."
There were an estimated 50 openly gay delegates and alternates to the convention and the week's speakers were generally moderate, including some prominent Republicans who are considered friends of the gay community--New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and to some extent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although the governor recently used a term some gays and women have found offensive (calling economic pessimists "girlie men"), Barron said Log Cabin has much more important issues to worry about: Senate candidate Alan Keyes disparaged Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary; the platform carried language that opposed not only same-sex marriage but also civil unions, and in his Sept. 2 speech, President George W. Bush twice expressed his opposition to marriage equality.
The "M" Word
At Log Cabin's reception for gay delegates Aug. 29 (please see page 24), several guests criticized Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts for being the first Democratic presidential nominee in many years to not explicitly mention gays in his speech.
"Kerry never mentioned 'gay' or 'marriage,' " noted San Francisco delegate Chris Bowman. He called it "the most closeted convention the Democrats have held in 20 years," and expressed hope that Bush might perform more favorably.
As it turned out, Bush did not mention the word "gay" either. He did mention "marriage," but took the occasion to say he supports "the protection of marriage against activist judges," a clear reference to state Supreme Court justices in Massachusetts who ruled that the state Constitution requires the issuance of marriage licenses to all couples.
Bush also said he would "continue to appoint federal judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law" and derided Kerry, saying, "If you voted against the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed, you are not the candidate of conservative values."
Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who in July led the failed effort in the Senate to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment, was given a few minutes at the podium Sept. 1. He praised Bush for "fighting to let the American people define marriage, not left-wing judges." Similarly, North Carolina's Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made pointed remarks during their primetime podium stints to reiterate that the Republican Party would fight to limit marriage to a man and a woman. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele also mentioned Kerry's 1996 vote against the Defense of Marriage Act.
Platform Opposes All Gay Relationships
"We're disappointed the president would bring up the marriage issue and would bring up DOMA," Barron said. "These issues are not issues the Republican Party should be focusing on. We should be focusing on those things that bring America together."
Log Cabin knew marriage would be the prominent issue throughout the convention, and the group worked hard to get the party to moderate its platform on the issue. In coalition with Republicans for Choice and the Republican Youth Majority, it proposed a "Unity Plank" that read: "We recognize and respect that Republicans of good faith may not agree with all the planks in the party's platform. This is particularly the case with regard to those planks dealing with abortion, family planning, and gay and lesbian issues. The Republican Party welcomes all people on all sides of these complex issues and encourages their active participation as we work together on those issues upon which we agree." In a letter to platform committee co-chairs--which included Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist--Log Cabin's national Executive Director Patrick Guerriero also urged the party not to adopt any language concerning same-sex marriage.
There were some signs of hope. In mid-July, Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN's "Late Edition Sunday" that she opposes the FMA, which seeks to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban recognition of same-sex marriages.
On Aug. 20, just one day before the platform committee vote, Cheney was asked about his position during a campaign stop in Iowa. Cheney startled many people by resurrecting comments he had made four years ago, supporting the right of same-sex couples to form relationships and suggesting that the states might be the best forum in which to decide how those relationships will be recognized.
"Lynne and I have a gay daughter," said Cheney, referring to his daughter Mary, "so it's an issue our family is very familiar with. With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to. The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage."
Asked about Cheney's remarks during a White House press gaggle in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 25, White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said Cheney's remarks were not anything new and that Cheney supports the president.
Referring to the FMA, McClellan said, "the president views the constitutional process as the only alternative for the people's voice to be heard. In that process, the states would be the ones that would have the final say. People have the right to live their lives as they choose, but that does not mean that they should redefine an enduring institution, like marriage, for others."
The platform committee rejected the Unity Plank and instead, just days before the convention opened, passed a platform calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and to urge that no government provide any recognition for any type of relationship between same-sex partners.
The platform language says that Republicans "believe that neither federal nor state judges and bureaucrats should force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage.
"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. We further believe that the legal recognition and accompanying benefits should be preserved for the unique and special union of one man and one woman, which has historically been called marriage."
Log Cabin released a statement saying the group was "outraged" at the "radically extreme language." In a statement widely broadcast, Barron said the party was "trying to put lipstick on a pig" by featuring more moderate Republican leaders speaking during primetime broadcasts in an attempt to disguise a "vicious, mean-spirited platform."
The group also held a press conference on the first day of the convention to say it would challenge the platform by airing a political ad on local New York City channels and on cable. The 30-second commercial featured the late Republican President Ronald Reagan and his opposition to a 1978 antigay initiative in California when he was governor. Interestingly, CNN refused to accept it. Log Cabin said the network deemed the ad "too controversial" because of its inclusion of images of the virulently antigay Kansas activist Fred Phelps.
In contrast, the platform adopted by the Democratic Party at its convention in July called for "full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and [to] seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families."
Convention:
Inside and Out
While the Democratic convention saw demonstrators outside protesting the party's positions on various issues, their numbers paled in comparison to the hundreds of thousands who traveled to New York to stage protests outside Madison Square Garden.
Perhaps the smallest gathering of protesters was a group of nine men and women who stripped naked for 10 minutes the morning of Aug. 26, on Eighth Avenue, joined by a woman who stripped down to her underwear. According to the Associated Press, the group was urging the Bush administration to do more for people with HIV in Africa. The AP said police arrested 11 people on counts of lewdness, disorderly conduct, and reckless endangerment.
AIDS protesters made it inside Madison Square Garden Sept. 1 and tried to stage a protest, but they were greeted by a hostile reaction from delegates and were quickly escorted out.
The Human Rights Campaign also ran a television ad, this one highlighting Cheney's comments in Iowa, and the group criticized the party for including three antigay figures on the podium. Two of the people--Sheri Dew and Michigan Bishop Keith Butler--gave invocations and one, Donnie McCulkin, sang. According to the HRC, Dew once compared gays fighting for marriage equality to Hitler. Butler once said the gay "lifestyle ... endangers family, children, and the core of society." McCulkin, who has said gay people are "trying to kill our children," sang the national anthem at the convention Sept. 2.
The Republican Party's opposition to same-sex marriage kept resurfacing both inside and outside Madison Square Garden. Away from the dais, Romney courted voters in the Iowa delegation at an Aug. 31 breakfast meeting, telling them that Kerry is "incapable of coming down firmly on one side of an issue.
"He said he opposes gay marriage, but he's not in favor of a federal constitutional amendment, but he is in favor of a Massachusetts constitutional amendment," Romney said. "He tries to satisfy both sides."
The Iowa delegates applauded when Romney said the Legislature is trying to define marriage as being between one man and one woman.
The New York Times reported that the Bush campaign organized a gathering of Christian conservatives for a "Family, Faith, and Freedom" rally at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel Aug. 31. At another campaign event, the party's candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, Alan Keyes, called Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary a sinner. (During the vice president's speech Sept. 1, Mary Cheney sat with her partner, Heather Poe, and the Cheney family, but when the rest of the family joined the vice president on the stage, the two women remained in their seats.)
As for Keyes, the RNC was not the only venue for his antigay remarks. Two years ago, he shocked even conservatives when he said, "Hitler and his supporters were Satanists and homosexuals. That's just a true statement." He added, "The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions" leads to "'totalitarianism,' 'Naz-ism,' and 'communism.' "
In another, earlier speech Keyes proclaimed, "It's about time we all faced up to the truth. If we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military, or in marriage, or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly destroying the concept of family. We must oppose it in the military. We must oppose it in marriage. We must op-pose it if the fundamental institution of our civilization is to survive. Those unwilling to face that fact and playing games with this issue are doing so irresponsibly at the price of America's moral foundations."
Keyes, who is African American, even has spoken out against hate-crimes laws: "The whole push with respect to hate-crimes legislation is an effort to create a body of law that allows the government to coerce opinions, and to punish people because of their opinions. In this particular case, the opinion that is going to be punished is the opinion that homosexuality is immoral and against the laws of God. That opinion is now going to become a crime. And this whole push with respect to hate crimes is an effort to establish that agenda."
At another RNC event, according to the The Times, Ohio's secretary of state, Ken Blackwell, said, "We cannot sit on the sidelines and see an assault on the most basic social institution in our democracy, and that is the family that is brought together by marriage, a union between one man and woman."
On a related note, the antigay Family Research Council was distributing to all Republican delegates and alternates a copy of a book "Outrage: How Gay Activists and Liberal Judges Are Trashing Democracy to Redefine Marriage."
On Sept. 7, the Log Cabin board of directors voted 22-2 not to endorse Bush as their nominee. Prior to the vote, nobody was willing to guess how it might go. During the convention, board chairman Bill Brownson of Columbus, Ohio, said the decision will have been based on events at the convention, as well as comments from members and the president's record.
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