Bay Windows - National News, June 17, 1999
Scott A. Giordano, Bay Windows staff

Arguably, it could be any or all of those moments that defines how the LCR grew to become the nation's leading organization for gay Republicans, led by former Bostonian Richard Tafel. During a visit to Boston last week to promote his just-released book, "Party Crasher: A Gay Republican Challenges Politics as Usual," Tafel spoke with Bay Windows about how the LCR has grown into a 52-chapter organization with more than 11,000 members and why it stands at the forefront of an internal battle for the heart of the Republican Party ù a battle it is fighting with the party's other increasingly visible faction: the religious Right.

"What's interesting and quite amazing in Republican politics is that a gay group in the GOP is perceived as leading the fight for one wing of the party, and that says a lot about gay activism," Tafel said. "We find that all of our growth came out of bigoted attempts to be anti-gay. The [1978 anti-gay] Briggs Initiative [in California] created the clubs in California, and it was Pat Buchanan's speech in 1992 that created the national office."

After Tafel moved to Washington, D.C. in September of 1993 to open the LCR's national offices, he recruited the group's 15-member national Board of Directors and founded a non-partisan educational foundation to further the LCR principles in the cultural arena and business community. In addition, its federal Political Action Committee (PAC) and local PACs throughout the country have enabled the LCR to lobby at both the local and national levels. As a result, a group that once was not even known by people within the gay community has become one of the most notable gay groups in the country, at a time when conservatism seems to hold sway over much of the nation.

The defining moment

From Tafel's perspective, the LCR's defining moment came in 1996, after the Dole campaign returned the group's $1,000 contribution and then reversed course again by publicly seeking the group's endorsement ù ending with the first time in history that a GOP presidential campaign was endorsed by a gay community organization. Tafel calls the returned check "the best $1,000 we never spent" because it resulted in national media coverage for the LCR and raised the nation's consciousness of gay people within the Republican Party.

"I think the debate [about the returned check] within the Republican Party basically made them realize you can't screw around with [the LCR] or you will lose. You would think that you can take a group like Log Cabin and marginalize it, but that didn't work. Bob Dole had to apologize and it was considered the biggest fiasco of his campaign. A lesson was learned: you don't treat that group that way, so you had better learn how to work with them. That was a big political lesson to learn ù that even in small numbers you can impact things by being on the high moral ground," Tafel said.

"The [Dole] campaign came back to us months later and asked what it would take to get our endorsement. So we listed things: AIDS funding, protecting the president's policy for openly gay employees and working on federal employment issues, and we also said the [1996 national Republican] convention could have no anti-gay rhetoric and no anti-gay signs. The Dole campaign met our demands, and in the midst of the convention asked for our endorsement, which was incredibly brave because it really pissed off the far Right. So they did all those things, and we honored that by endorsing [Dole,]" he added. "I thought the big breakthrough came when Dole asked for our endorsement, and I think nobody in the gay and lesbian community understands the importance of that. We were pretty much criticized for endorsing him at all. But the fact that we had a candidate for the president of the United States in the Republican Party asking for this endorsement from a gay and lesbian group, to me, has been our biggest breakthrough so far."

Another key victory for the LCR came last summer, when bipartisan gay organizations credited Congressman Kolbe and the LCR for their lobbying efforts to defeat the anti-gay Hefley Amendment, which would have overturned President Clinton's Executive Order that barred discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal government. Partially because of their efforts, 63 Republicans ended up voting against the Hefley Amendment ù marking a significant defeat for the national religious Right.

"Jim Kolbe's leadership was very key in defeating the Hefley Amendment. The other thing is that, by that point, we had been in Washington for more than five years and had built a lot of relationships and a lot of trust. We told [legislators] this was an important issue for us, and there was no way out of it. ... It also was one of those rare instances in which there was cooperation among Republicans and Democrats all with one goal, and that worked very effectively," he recalls.

The LCR's most recent success came just weeks ago when its efforts ù in collaboration with a Scotland gay-rights group ù to draw attention to a proposed business venture between Pat Robertson and the Bank of Scotland eventually led to the demise of the proposition.

"We were the only group in the United States for the gay and lesbian community that understood the ramifications of [Robertson's proposed business deal.] Because we are so involved with Republican politics, we track the religious Right very closely, and we certainly track Pat Robertson very closely. We worked very closely with the gay and lesbian group in Scotland that took the lead on this, and we shared information back and forth every day. ... Just by being guerrilla warfare against the religious Right, we hurt Pat Robertson financially, which is good, because his money always goes to the religious Right," Tafel said.

The greatest disappointment for the LCR, Tafel said, is when anti-gay Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., was elected as the current Majority Leader of the Senate.

"[Lott] is the worst image for the Republican Party. And he does not reflect the majority, even of Republican senators, of the party. That is not a defeat for us, but certainly a frustration," he said.

Two-party movement

Despite the group's growth, Tafel is still disturbed by those within the gay community who shun the very word "Republican," because he believes the Democratic Party has sold out and used the gay community primarily for fund-raising purposes. The danger in that, he says, is that Democrats think the "gay vote" is theirs.

"I think that the history I try to show in my book is that gays moved to urban centers and urban centers were pretty much dominated by Democrats, so that has been the natural party [the gay community] became involved with," Tafel said. "My argument is that, in the 30 years or so that gays have thrown their support to Democrats, the Democratic Party has said æWe want to do more for you but we can't because of the Republicans.'

"I think [the LCR,] as an organization, is far more likely to hold Republicans' feet to fire, and I'm struck by how gay Democrats are so apologetic when Clinton does anything or [Vice President Al] Gore does anything that is not in line with our community for any reason. And one of the reasons they usually use is they have to do it because of the Republicans. That answer means we had better be successful in changing the Republicans," he added, saying it's unfair to hold Republicans to a higher set of standards.

"It's interesting that the Republican Party is not where the Democratic Party is, yet the Republican Party is held to a higher standard," Tafel said.

In his book, Tafel makes constant references to a division within the gay community that has been historically hostile towards gay Republicans. He noted how the nation's largest gay political organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC,) chose to endorse Sen. Jim Kerry from Massachusetts in 1992 rather than endorsing then-Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who had equally strong support from the local gay community, for his Senate bid. At the time, the HRC used its policy of favoring incumbents as its reason for the Kerry endorsement.

But progress has been made, Tafel said, as more gay organizations are learning the importance of being bipartisan. And he credited the HRC for its controversial endorsement last year of U.S. Sen. Al D'Amato, R-N.Y., over his Democratic opponent Chuck Schumer ù who would go on to win the election.

"I think it's good that [the HRC endorsed D'Amato,] but they actually apologized for that, which didn't help. But it did send a message that there are Republicans worthy of support from the gay and lesbian community, and we have to get beyond the days to solely demonize gay Republicans. The community is becoming more sophisticated," Tafel said, citing Massachusetts as a model for the rest of the country.

"In Massachusetts, you have Republican candidates for governor vying for the gay vote and competing for it. ... I have never been able to figure out why that has happened in Massachusetts," he said. "It may be the academic environment in the state. ... It could be the Republican Party here was so small enough and weak enough that it felt it had to compete."

Breaking stereotypes

One factor that has helped the LCR to grow is by having more gay Republican officials come out of the closet. At the federal level, there has been Gunderson and Kolbe. But Tafel said a number of Republicans also are coming out at the state level, including Michael Duffy who had an unsuccessful run last year to become the Massachusetts State Auditor. Prior to running for that post, Duffy served in former Gov. Weld's administration as the openly gay chairman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Tafel believes it is partially because of Duffy that Weld became one of the most pro-gay Republican governors the nation has ever seen. And he credited Gunderson and Kolbe for further shattering gay stereotypes.

"They help to destroy the myth that gays are all liberals and a radical element that wants to overthrow society," he said, while adding that the HIV/AIDS epidemic also helped the community.

"[The AIDS epidemic] hurt the community because we lost a generation of people. ... It also hurt us because there is so much anger that it isn't always focused," he said. "The flip side and more positive side ... has been that it has really forced the community into being politically active. A lot of that anger was translated to more political savvy. It forced a lot of people out of the closet, whether they liked it or not, even in death. So it identified a community that was really buried and invisible."

But the LCR continues to have a largely disproportionate membership, in which lesbian Republicans remain virtually invisible.

"There is gender gap in the party at large, and that is part of the problem. And a lot of lesbian Republicans that I know have said they don't want to deal with the hassle of being ostracized in the party and also within the lesbian community, so they are low-key and don't want to take leadership positions and that reinforces the position we are just all men. The women's community also has historically gone to the left side," he said.

Republican principles

Tafel said he was raised as Republican and has often felt challenged within the gay community to switch political parties, but he has refused to do so because he values the Republican principles of individual rights and favors business over government control. He would like to see the gay community address those principles by focusing less on creating new laws and placing more emphasis on eliminating "bad" laws such as archaic sex laws that criminalize sodomy. Some would argue that the courts have been more successful with such efforts, but Tafel disagrees, saying "Most people trust the courts more than I do."

In recent weeks, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) has been criticized for withdrawing support for the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The NGLTF chose not to support the bill because it does not offer protections based on gender. But Tafel believes that is just one more example of how divided the gay community and the political parties are on the issues now pending on Capitol Hill.

"I don't think there any issues right now that both parties agree on much at all, except the very basic level that it's wrong to beat up gay people, and I think saying that merit should be a criteria in the workplace and nothing else is an appealing concept to both parties," he said. "There is a whole spectrum of belief about ENDA, particularly among Log Cabin Republicans, that resists even supporting federal legislation that adds groups to protected classes in the first place. But pragmatically, if other groups are protected and we are not, then that is not fair. And that is where we come in.

"As far as the Task Force's decision, I think it does reflect a little bit of naivet about how legislation is passed," he added. "You do take small steps forward and consolidate what you want. ... If you want a full loaf and you won't ask for half, you won't get any."

But perhaps the LCR's greatest role is counteracting the religious Right in the Republican Party. One way Tafel has successfully done so is by using his own religious upbringing and knowledge during debate. Ordained as a Baptist minister, Tafel graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1987 and still uses his faith when counteracting the arguments presented by the Right.

"My religious background gives me the strength to persevere in what sometimes seems to be extreme odds. At a pragmatic level of debate, it's handy because [the Right] quotes scripture and nobody has ever refuted them before and they are baffled when I quote it back at them. Also, Christians often are sympathetic to my argument because I base it on Christian language they are familiar with," he said.

Tafel believes the gay movement will be better served if gay people can learn to hold the "higher moral ground." In his book, Tafel says, "We are hated by those who speak of values, and yet we can be role models of values by showing how we all should treat one another." However, that message seems to contradict a repeated theme in the book that there is a sharp division in the gay community and a tendency to not respect differences of opinion. Tafel explained this apparent contradiction.

"The tolerance we can transform into society at large results from being persecuted by society and has resulted in a tolerance and understanding of others. That is what America needs for going forward. ... If gay and lesbian people can translate a little of what we have learned, that is a good thing," he said. "That said, we have severe problems in the gay and lesbian community in that we use as our slogans æWe are everywhere' and æDiversity is a good thing' and we are still very rigid about what it means to be a gay person. One of the roles of gay Republicans is to challenge the myth that we are already inclusive. Inclusive for someone in our community means race or gender and it has never meant [being inclusive of] thinking or ideology. ... We have that debate internally."

Looking ahead

Tafel plans to remain as the head of LCR at least through the 2000 presidential election cycle. Of the prospective Republican presidential candidates, he said Log Cabin sees Texas Gov. George W. Bush (son of former Republican President George Bush,) Elizabeth Dole (wife of Bob Dole) and (Republican Sen.) John McCain (of Arizona) as the most likely to receive an LCR endorsement.

"[The LCR's] most important role is to educate the public and the legislators about our issues. Of the candidates right now, I would say Dole, McCain and Bush are the ones we see ourselves trying to work with. Out of those, John McCain is the most supportive of gay and lesbian issues," Tafel said.

Bush has come under harsh criticism from the left-wing of the gay community because of recent public statements that he opposes gay adoptions and opposes the inclusion of sexual orientation in a Texas hate-crimes bill that would enhance penalties for bias-related crimes. But Tafel said he has hope that Bush can become more educated on the issues.

"The only way that a George W. Bush will change any of his positions is to have someone working with him and educating him, so we are not in a position to endorse anyone right now. We have to work with them and find out where they are. My biggest concerns is whether they will pander to the religious Right. And so far, George W. Bush saying he would appoint openly-gay people and openly gay ambassadors is far ahead of anything that is happened in the Republican Party in any presidential race. So we have to measure our success on whether we have moved the ball forward," Tafel said.

Tafel does not see himself ever running for public office, but he is interested in writing another book ù focusing less on politics and more on his spirituality. Meanwhile, Log Cabin continues to look to the future with its National Leadership Conference being held Aug. 28 in New York City. The conference will feature a series of training seminars for gay Republicans wishing to run for public office. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican and likely contender for the U.S. Senate in the year 2000, will keynote the conference.

(For more information on the LCR or its upcoming conference, call its national offices at 202-347-5306.)
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