THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

NEW YORK — The gay Log Cabin Republicans are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.

Speaking outside the Republican National Convention Monday, LCR Executive Director Patrick Guerriero said the 'radical right' has 'hijacked' the Republican Party and that simple integrity requires gay Republicans to fight back.

The group unveiled a 'major' new TV ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan saying, 'Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.'

'The Republican Party has to make a choice,' Guerriero said. 'We can be the party of Giuliani, McCain and Schwarzenegger or we can be the party of Falwell, Santorum and Buchanan. We can unite on those things that bring us together or we can continue the politics of intolerance and fear that only lead to hate.

'The Republican Party can't have it both ways,' Guerriero said. 'We cannot have the voices of exclusion crafting a vicious and mean-spirited platform, while at the same time putting the voices of inclusion in prime time [at the convention].'

Guerriero said President George Bush's desire to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage—combined with the party platform's rejection of civil unions and even domestic-partner benefits—has launched a 'fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party.'

'For too long we have watched while the radical right hijacked our party,' he said. 'And for too long we have been asked to be loyal foot soldiers on election day, and asked to remain silent as the far right hijacked our platform and our policy agenda. ... This party platform is so outrageous and insulting to some of us, that some of us have to call our own party on it.

'If we don't do it, nobody will. And if we don't do it now, we'll be back in four years at a convention with language that's even worse.'

The day before the convention started, Log Cabin hosted a 'Big Tent Event' that was attended by Republican politicians who sometimes support GLBT causes.

The gathering was addressed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. George Pataki, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.

'We believe in a Republican Party true to its origins, devoted to achieving liberty and justice for all Americans,' Bloomberg said. 'And I have stood up every time I've had the opportunity, no matter what the setting was, to say the same thing. I am a believer that what makes America and New York great is its inclusiveness and its willingness to let everybody be who they are, and I will always stand for that regardless of whether it happens to be politically correct or not.'

Bloomberg denounced the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA).

'I don't think we should ever use the Constitution to drive wedges between us,' he said. 'Quite the contrary, the Constitution is there to pull us together.'

Specter said Republicans will see the light on gay equality sooner or later.

'There are so many prominent Republicans [here today],' he said. 'The governor, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. There's a lot of muscle and a lot of prestige and a lot of prominence behind the gay and lesbian community—and that's the way it ought to be. ... In the long sweep of history, or maybe even the short sweep of history, those who favor gay rights and those who favor equality are on the right side of the issue.'

Weld said he favors full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

'The recognition of gay marriage, as the Massachusetts Supreme Court has done, is the conservative point of view,' the former governor said. 'It's making the same demands on gays and lesbians as are made on everyone else when they want to commit to each other for a lifetime. I'm surprised that that is not a more broadly held point of view.'

'The fact that some people have gay/lesbian preferences is not something that's going to be changed based on what somebody in the legislature says,' Weld noted. 'I don't know whether the percentage of the population is 10 percent or 5 percent or 15 percent or 1 percent. It doesn't matter. You're not going to repeal biology in the United States Senate or the House.'

Log Cabin will not decide whether to endorse Bush until after the convention. But all indications are that the group will advise the approximately 1 million GLBT Americans who voted for the president in 2000 not to do so again.

'Log Cabin's endorsement is in great jeopardy as a result of the FMA endorsement by the president and the decision to let this platform attack gay and lesbian families so directly,' Guerriero said. 'There was no need for the Republican Party to let this platform get hijacked by the radical right.'

LCR's Big Tent Event was picketed by a small group of left-leaning gay activists.

'We're protesting the mayor at a gay event and protesting the fact that he gets credit for being progay when in fact he isn't,' said Ann Northrop. 'He has done a lot of things: vetoing progay legislation, criticizing his commissioners for doing progay stuff, joining the Boy Scouts, marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade. He just talks out of both sides of his mouth. He thinks he's progay; he's deluded. And they [LCR] think he's progay, and they're deluded.'

In addition to calling for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, the Republican Party platform also states: 'We 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.'