Washington Blade - November 5, 2004
Joe Crea, jcrea@washblade.com.

In South Carolina, Republican Jim DeMint, who said in a campaign ad that the "government cannot approve and promote homosexuality," won handily over Democratic challenger Inez Tenenbaum.

In early October, DeMint found himself on the defensive and during his first campaign debate with Tenenbaum, he advocated banning gays from teaching in public schools. But like DeMint, Tenenbaum also favored a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

In what the pre-election polls showed to be a close race, Republican Oklahoma Senate candidate Tom Coburn trounced his Democratic opponent, Brad Carson.

Coburn, who most recently chaired the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV/AIDS, has said that the gay "agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today," and noted in a speech this August, "lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom."

Brent Minor, a gay member of PACHA, said while he disagrees with Coburn's comments on gay issues, he said Coburn will "take the lead" on the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act and other important AIDS issues.

Republican Jim Bunning won a Senate victory over his Democratic opponent, Daniel Mongiardo, after Bunning surrogates engaged in some last minute gay baiting, including questioning Mongiardo's sexual orientation.

Republican State Senate President David Williams said that Mongiardo, a 44-year-old bachelor, was "limp wristed" as compared to Bunning, a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher. Bunning won by 18,000 votes in a race where 1.7 million votes were cast.

In Florida, former U.S. Housing Secretary Mel Martinez (R) won a narrow victory over his Democratic opponent, Betty Castor. Martinez defeated his primary challenger, Bill McCollum, after asserting that he was "the new darling of the homosexual extremists," for sponsoring hate crimes legislation while a member of the House of Representatives.

Daschle ousted Sen. Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) lost his Senate seat to Republican challenger John Thune. Thune, an evangelical Christian who has said he does not believe in evolution, charged in July that gay marriage would mean "it's going to be taught in the schools as the moral equivalent" of a marriage between a man and a woman.

With the loss of Daschle as minority leader, Democrats began the process this week of finding a replacement.

Immediate speculation centered on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), the party's Senate whip, as Daschle's likely successor. Reid scored a 63 percent pro-gay favorability rating on HRC 2004 Congressional Scorecard; the same score as Daschle.

Also mentioned as a possible candidate for the party's top Senate post is Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who scored a 75 percent on HRC's recent scorecard.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's razor-thin victory in Alaska boosted the Republican majority in the Senate from 51 to 55, still short of the 60 votes needed to block Democratic Party filibusters.

GOP House majority grows Republicans also picked up four seats in the House of Representatives, and Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the author of the Federal Marriage Amendment, easily defeated her opponent, Stan Matsunaka.

All three gay members of the House, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) were re-elected.

Despite the setbacks for gay rights advocates, some said that Tuesday's defeats will help energize gay voters.

"We can make it hell for Bush and no, it is not our fault that he won," said Robin Tyler, co-founder of DontAmend.com, a Web site dedicated to defeating the Federal Marriage Amendment.

"We deserve our civil rights. This is not a time for pity. It's a wake up call. Our struggle is on the front burner and we have to be committed. We shouldn't blame ourselves and act like victims. We are not victims."

According to a CNN survey, 22 percent of voters cited "moral values" as the most important issue of the campaign and 79 percent of those voters went for Bush.

Despite the gay baiting in the campaign, Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, insisted that the term "moral values" doesn't solely refer to gay marriage, but rather a host of other issues, including the war on terrorism, the economy and stem cell research.

"It's such a vague category," Foreman said. "The war in Iraq is a moral issue. Stem-cell research is a moral issue. Since President Bush got into office, he has done everything possible to appease the right with their moral values, which is far broader than marriage equality. It includes abstinence-only education, late-term abortions, faith-based initiatives, the list goes on."

HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg said that based on exit polling, it was clear the Christian conservative base "turned out in droves" this election.

Some have argued that with the GOP gains in the Senate and House, Republicans are likely to resurrect the defeated Federal Marriage Amendment.

Foreman said that since the amendment was defeated by a majority in the Senate, "there's no indication" that it will come back up for a vote.

Stachelberg said with the new GOP gains in both houses, the FMA "will be a priority of the Republican leadership," and said gay groups would work to secure the necessary 34 Senate votes to block passage of the amendment.

Regarding controversial judicial nominations President Bush might make, Stachelberg said gays can "take comfort" in Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's victory on Tuesday.

Specter is likely to become head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee and has earned high marks from HRC for his support of many gay rights issues. In a hotly contested GOP primary, however, Specter promised to give priority treatment to President Bush's judicial nominations.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the committee's current chair and an opponent of gay rights, is vacating that position.

HRC endorsed Specter's opponent, Democratic Congressman Joseph Hoeffel, in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

A wake-up call Gay Republican activist Carl Schmid, said Tuesday's results should serve as a wake-up call to gays, and added that gay rights activists will have to start working with the Republicans.

"You can just fight, fight, fight and try to defeat these Republicans, but that hasn't been successful," Schmid said. "HRC spent millions to defeat Republicans and maybe they should spend some money on educating Republicans. The issue of gay marriage is not doing so well. I don't think 'George Bush: You're Fired' does a good job at educating America about gay marriage."

Patrick Guerriero, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, did not return calls seeking comment.

Democrats won decisive Senate victories in Colorado and Illinois. Democrat Barack Obama handily defeated the rabidly anti-gay Republican Alan Keyes, and Democrat Ken Salazar in Colorado beat Republican challenger Pete Coors for a Senate seat.

Both Obama and Salazar oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Cincy voters overturn gay ban In other favorable news for gay rights advocates, Cincinnati voters repealed a 10-year-old law that prevented the city from passing any legislation to protect gay residents from discrimination.

The Citizens to Restore Fairness, a group formed to overturn the amendment, said the measure had been used to discriminate against gays in employment and housing while the Equal Rights Not Special Rights Campaign claimed the measure was necessary to protect Christians who oppose homosexuality.

In California, three-fourths of the 48 pro-gay candidates endorsed by Equality California's Political Action Committee (EQCA PAC) and all six of the gay candidates running for statewide office were elected by substantial margins.

California activists say these favorable results bode well for the Marriage License Non-Discrimination Act, a marriage equality bill that will be introduced on Dec. 4.

And in Massachusetts, all incumbents in the state legislature who voted to support civil marriage equality for gay men and lesbians won re-election. According to Mass Equality, local issues dominated the races rather than a constitutional amendment that would ban marriage rights for gay couples.

Additionally, two incumbents who supported the anti-gay marriage amendment lost their seats to pro-gay marriage candidates.

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