NYT: Foley scandal's impact on gay Republicans

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday October 7, 2006

A front page story slated for Sunday's New York Times will examine the Foley scandal's impact on gay Republicans, RAW STORY has learned.

"Every month or so, 10 top staff members from Capitol Hill meet over dinner to commiserate about their uneasy experience as gay Republicans," writes Mark Leibovich for the Times.

"For many of those men and other gay Republicans in political Washington, reconciling their private lives and public roles has required a discreet existence," the article continues. "But in the last week, the Mark Foley scandal has upset that careful balance."

On Saturday, the Palm Beach Post reported that the executive vice president of the gay Log Cabin Republicans thinks that the GOP is "not where it needs to be on issues related to gay rights."

Patrick Sammon said that he was "working to make the Republican Party more inclusive and tolerant of gay and lesbian issues."

"Gay and lesbian equality will be impossible to achieve without Republican voters," said Sammon. "Clearly, the Republican Party is not where it needs to be on issues related to gay rights."

Excerpts from Times article:

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The presence of homosexuals, particularly gay men, in crucial staff positions has been an enduring if largely hidden staple of Republican life for decades, and particularly in recent years. They have played decisive roles in passing legislation, running campaigns and advancing careers.

Known in some insider slang as “the Velvet Mafia” or “the Pink Elephants,” gay Republicans tend to be less open about their sexual orientation than their Democratic counterparts. Even though the G.O.P. fashions itself as “the party of Lincoln” and a promoter of tolerance, it is perceived as hostile by many gay men and lesbians. Republicans have promoted a “traditional values” agenda, while some conservatives have turned the “radical gay subculture” into a reliable campaign villain. And there are few visible role models in the party; Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona is the only openly gay Republican in Congress.

As the blame from the Foley case has been parceled out in recent days, some people in Washington suggested that the Republican leadership’s inadequate response to alarms about Mr. Foley was borne of squeamishness in dealing with a so-called gay issue. Meanwhile, some Republican staff members worried that several gay men caught up in the scandal would be treated unfairly.

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FULL TIMES ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK