Homosexual Defection Could Signal Trend Away From GOP

A Republican state representative in New Hampshire announced he is switching his political allegiance because of recent comments by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in a defection analysts said could signal an accelerated trend away from the GOP on homosexuality.

New Hampshire State Rep. Corey Corbin announced he is becoming a Democrat because of what he considers poor treatment of homosexuals in the Republican Party.

"Being a gay man and, up until this week, a Republican, [Santorum's] comments truly summed up for me the attitude of the GOP toward the millions of gay men and women who work, raise families, pay taxes and contribute to our society," Corbin told the National Stonewall Democrats (NSD), a homosexual pressure group within the Democratic Party.

"We are hated, we are marginalized, and are basically unwanted by a party that has forsaken the principles of Abraham Lincoln and become dominated by a right wing that falls far short of representing mainstream America," Corbin said.

If the 2004 race is as close as some predict, voter defections for perceived intolerance of homosexuals could cost the GOP its political majority, analysts said. Polls show that homosexual voters, which make up an estimated 5 percent of the electorate, favor Democratic candidates over Republicans by margins of up to three to one.

John Marble, a spokesman for the NSD - which welcomed Corbin as the newest member of its Elected Officials Caucus - said there were "stark differences" between the Republican and Democratic parties on homosexual issues.

"Certainly, I would think that politicians who are gay would view the Democratic Party as being more supportive of themselves and their families," Marble said.

"I think they demonstrate the chronic problem that exists with the Republican Party, that there is a hard strain of intolerance that may cause people to really see the differences and reevaluate their relationship with the GOP," he added.

Mark Mead, director of public affairs with the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual advocacy group that seeks greater influence in the GOP, said his group was concerned with the defection. But he predicted that in the long run, Log Cabin members would remain loyal to President Bush and the GOP.

"We're going to work on changing the face of the party to make tolerance and inclusion a permanent part of the political landscape, and if Republicans want to stay in the majority, we've got to expand. You win by addition, not by subtraction," Mead said.

Differences between GOP groups opposed to homosexuality and factions such as the Log Cabins could be worked out, Mead said.

"We probably agree on 80 percent of the stuff, and on maybe 20 percent we don't, but it's a heck of a lot more than we might or might not agree on with Democrats," he said.

Santorum support still strong

In an April 7 interview, Santorum commented on a case before the Supreme Court involving a state law that makes certain sexual acts illegal. Santorum noted that the law was challenged on the basis of the "right to privacy" in one's own home.

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said.

"Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," he said.

Homosexual advocacy groups and their allies condemned the comments as bigoted, but Santorum did not retract the remarks.

A poll conducted among Santorum's constituents by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed that the senator's support had not wavered. His approval rating of 55 percent remained the same as before the controversy began.

In addition, 75 percent said Santorum should not resign as the Senate Republican Conference chairman, as his critics had urged.

Critics likened Santorum's comments to those of Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who touched off a national uproar for endorsing the 1948 segregationist campaign of Sen. Strom Thurmond. Lott resigned his leadership post under pressure from Republican leaders.

Pollster John Zogby said, however, that despite the Pennsylvania poll numbers, the Republicans will see defections on the homosexuality issue.

Unlike the reaction to the Lott controversy - which saw Republican revulsion at the comments - Santorum's remarks brought up fear of the Christian right, "that leaning too far against Santorum could alienate the conservatives," Zogby noted.

"It sends a message that the Republicans are going to lean right on gay issues and not compromise, and in that sense, I think Republicans stand to lose some moderate officials, and at the same time, they also stand to lose some centrist voters - soccer moms and the like - who are not terribly comfortable with a 'closed tent,'" Zogby said.

The 2004 Democratic campaign for the presidential nomination is beginning to resemble the contest between then-Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley, who competed strenuously for homosexual votes in 2000.

Democratic candidates are pursuing major efforts to recruit support among an electorate that in some key primaries could contribute 10 percent or more of the vote.

Politics: America Fifty/Fifty

In the end, cultural disputes and widespread dismay over the country's moral state overshadowed the economic optimism that was expected to put Al Gore in the White House, allowing Bush to eke out a victory.

All this goes to confirm that, to borrow a title from an earlier First Things article, "It's the Culture, Stupid" (April 1994).

As political scientist Walter Dean Burnham has suggested, such complex party coalitions are best described by geological metaphors. Today the ancient ethnoreligious bedrock of vote choice has been eroded by rising tides of disengagement, while simultaneously being fractured by the upheavals of cultural politics. Indeed, the religious formations we saw in 2000 have been developing for some time and have now solidified. This fact has vital ramifications for governance. In the future Republicans will remain solicitous of traditionalists, and evangelical traditionalists in particular, while Democrats will privilege the concerns of religious minorities, secularists, and modernists. Regardless of well-meaning admonitions to both parties to "move to the center," ignoring such large core constituencies would be political suicide.

What is needed is "bridging" social capital: activity that reaches beyond the religious group itself to work with others on causes that involve "loving thy neighbor," but are not purely sectarian in nature. Traditionalist Protestants and Roman Catholics are remarkably generous in donating their time and energy to worthy causes: we find (as Putnam did) that they are much more engaged on the whole than religious liberals or secular people. But they are also more likely to volunteer in ways that bond them with one another, serving the needs of people within the community of faith, rather than connect to the needs of others beyond the fold. In this respect, the declining number of mainline Protestants is particularly disturbing, for this group

Republicans Confident Gay Rights Issue Will Hurt DeanRichard White (search), a Republican state senator from Mississippi, said any candidate talking about gay rights might as well not even visit his state.

"The people down here, they are not going to put up with that kind of stuff," White said. "We're not prepared for all that in Mississippi or anywhere else in the southern states."

Mary Cheney ducks out of GOP gay group

Mary Cheney ducks out of GOP gay group Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, has resigned from the board of the Republican Unity Coalition slightly more than one year after taking on the largely honorary post with the gay-straight political alliance.

Cheney, who once marketed beer to the gay and lesbian community as an employee of the Coors Brewing Co. of Golden, Colo., has been one of the few key gay rights supporters with close ties to the White House.

A source close to the Cheney family said Mary Cheney's resignation from RUC will allow her to pursue business interests in her home state of Colorado, where she lives with her partner, Heather Poe. But some gay activists suggest that there may be more behind the decision, since it comes on the heels of protests from the religious right regarding pro-gay comments by GOP chairman Marc Racicot. "Leaders of the extreme right are demanding that the GOP back away from any association with the gay community," said David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C., gay rights group. "The Right is calling into question what little outreach the party had to gay voters at the crossroads of an election season. While I can't speculate on the reasons for her decision, Mary Cheney's departure definitely comes at an interesting time."

Repubs Should Stick to Values

But I have noticed that when it comes to the entire issue of homosexuality, increasing numbers of banner conservatives are going soft on truth that has been commonly understood for thousands of years. That truth is this: Homosexuality is behavior that is damaging to individuals, to families and to society.

Conservatives have been scared into believing that there really is something about homosexuality that is uncontrollable or inherent in genetic or biological make-up to cause these people to behave in this manner. On this point Horowitz is dead wrong – there is not a scintilla of proof that homosexuality is a genetic or biological trait. To believe otherwise diminishes Horowitz's credibility, at least on this issue.

So let's examine the statement that has been commonly understood for thousands of years.

It is damaging to individuals. It's true – from AIDS to suicide – look at the numbers. What single group of people is more affected than any others? Homosexual men. At the "International Mr. Leather" contest held in Chicago in 2002, a man died from the "activities" of the weekend. The sex was billed as blockbuster, but what difference does that make if you are found face up in a pool of your own blood after having been given large dosages of the date rape drug?

The "gay" lifestyle does nothing to promote healthy monogamous relationships. Why? Because there is little, if anything, healthy about nihilism, narcissism and compulsive sexual addiction. Yet the community where these traits are not only seen but also encouraged is again among individuals wrapped up in the "gay life."

SODOMY : Ex-Gay Lobbyists Visit Capitol Hill The shock of Ex-Gay Lobby Day was that out of 50 appointments on the Hill, nobody had ever heard of anyone changing from homosexuality," said Linda Wall, who most recently ran for state Senate in Virginia’s Tidewater area.

"As a former lesbian schoolteacher, I realized more than ever the importance of sharing my past life as a lesbian so others know that there is a choice. I also see how vital it is that we ex-gays be permitted a seat at the table of public policy making to assure the full disclosure of information pertaining to sexual orientation," Wall said.

SODOMY : Homosexual Agenda Unrelated to Civil Rights Movement, Conservative Blacks Insist

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