From: NGLTF@aol.com Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 11:23:18 -0400 Subject: Gays and the GOP-NGLTF Op Ed ************************************************* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force EDITORIAL Contact: Beth Barrett (202) 332-6483 ext. 3215 bbarrett@ngltf.org 2320 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20009 ************************************************* October 24, 1995 Dear Editors/Publishers, Attached is an opinion/commentary about the controversy concerning Sen. Bob Dole and the campaign contribution of the Log Cabin Republicans. The piece is by John D'Emilio, director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). Many articles and commentaries have already discussed the hypocrisy of the Dole decision, given Log Cabin Club's general support for most of the Republican agenda and Dole's previous contrary decisions around accepting donations from other organizations. D'Emilio's piece focuses attention on what this incident indicates regarding the Republican party's current ability to welcome gay people into its ranks. I hope you will consider running the piece in your publication's op-ed or commentary area. Photos available upon request.` Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, [The following opinion/editorial is by Dr. John D'Emilio, director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). Based in Washington, DC, NGLTF is a progressive organization that has supported grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973. Permission is granted to reprint with attribution. For weeks now, the media has been filled with stories about Senator Robert Dole's campaign for President and its relationship to Log Cabin Republicans, the gay Republican group. Dole returned their $1000 campaign contribution, claiming he could not accept money from a group so at odds with his political philosophy. Log Cabin successfully countered with facts and documents demonstrating that the Dole campaign actively solicited its help and its money, with full knowledge of Log Cabin's stand on such issues as gays in the military and gay marriage. Dole has now changed his story again, blaming his staff for poor judgment in returning the contribution. The whole controversy has been a publicity bonanza for gay Republicans and a public relations disaster for the Dole campaign. It also highlights the intense battle being waged for control of the Republican party as right-wing religious radicals capture control of the party machinery in more and more states, and moderate Republicans with political ambitions scramble to win extremist support. And it raises questions as well about where the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community should be putting our political energy, especially as we approach a presidential election year. The Log Cabin Republicans articulately advance the position that, except for the extremist rhetoric of the radical right, the Republican party could be a welcoming home for gay and lesbian Americans. In this view, the fierce anti-gay rhetoric of the Republican's 1992 Houston convention was the aberration, whereas the Contract with America, silent on such "divisive" issues as abortion and gay rights, offers a sound basis for national policy. The argument doesn't persuade me. First of all, Houston was about more than the hate-filled rhetoric of Pat Buchanan. The Republican convention as a whole ratified a platform for the party, and it was fiercely anti-gay. "We believe," it said, "in traditional family values and in the Judeo-Christian heritage that informs our culture." It opposed efforts to include "sexual preference" in federal, state, and local civil rights statutes, and it came down against the legalization of same-sex marriage and against laws to permit gay men and lesbians to adopt children or provide foster care. In the area of AIDS prevention, it called for education that stressed abstinence and marital fidelity, and rejected condom distribution as a prevention measure. Taken together, these planks are pretty comprehensive in their homophobia. Then there's the Republican agenda in Congress, expressed through the Contract with America. True, it doesn't pander to anti-gay extremists, but it is still hurtful to the gay community. The Republican version of budget balancing, for instance, is a disaster. Budgets can be balanced in all sorts of ways. In the Eisenhower era of the 1950s, the budget was balanced, but largely through a progressive tax structure with levies of up to 90% on the income of the very rich. In this post-Cold War era, Gingrich's Congress proposes large military budgets, low taxes, and steep cuts in spending related to human and community needs. This kind of budget-balancing will adversely affect such things as services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, substance-abuse programs offered by gay community centers, and federal grants to gay artists and scholars. Even when this Republican Congress seems to be with us, as in support for re-authorization of the Ryan White Care Act, it takes away with the other hand what it gives with one. Efforts to gut Medicaid will be a disaster for our community, since Medicaid provides four times as much money to care for people with AIDS as does Ryan White. And what about the Republican role in the scuttling of health care reform last year? And the public statements of today's most visible Republican standard bearer, Newt Gingrich, have been loving towards his own family and hostile towards the rest of ours. While acknowledging his love for his openly lesbian half-sister, he has simultaneously said "it's madness to pretend that families are anything other than heterosexual couples," has opposed laws banning discrimination against gay people, and has advanced Right Wing misinformation about "recruitment" of gay youth, saying, "I think frankly you have had clearly what is in effect recruitment in so-called counseling programs. So I'm very cautious about the idea that you want to have active homosexuals in junior high school and high school explaining that they have all of these various wonderful options." Finally, what the arguments of gay Republicans miss is that their party is becoming the majority party precisely because of the extremism of the radical right. Groups like the Christian Coalition are providing the dollars, the recruits, and the passion that have made Republicans competitive in state after state. Without them, moderates might run the Republican party, but Republicans would remain the minority that they were for the last half century. And, as the extremists become better and better organized, moderates like Dole engage in the necessary contortions to appear acceptable to this dynamic extremist wing. I am very glad that Republicans who are gay are at long last coming out of the closet. I am glad that they are doing battle inside one of the largest anti-gay institutions in the United States, since homophobia should never go unchallenged. Where I part company with them is over the claim that more of us should become Republican. That isn't good either for the gay and lesbian community, or for the country. The NGLTF Policy Institute is a resource center which gay and lesbian organizations, activists, and advocates can rely upon for research, issue analysis, publications, and videos that will support their work. Born on November 8? ($1) is an NGLTF publication which provides further analysis of the records of Republican Congressional leaders on gay and lesbian issues. To order this or any other NGLTF publication, please call (202) 332-6483, ext. 3215 or send email to ngltf@ngltf.org. --end--