Although the Republican Party is generally beholden to the Religious Right and officially endorses much that can be considered theocratic and anti-gay, not all Republicans agree with such position. In a rare move, however, an organized group of gay Republicans is officially and publicly opposing the administration's efforts to ban gay marriage.

Howard Kurtz writes:

The ad, by the Log Cabin Republicans, uses grainy footage of Vice President Cheney saying during the 2000 campaign that the matter should be left to the states. ... The ad shows Cheney in the 2000 vice presidential debate, saying of gay marriage: "People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. . . . That matter is regulated by the states. I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area."

Bush's decision to endorse a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage was "the line in the sand" for the 27-year-old group, which has never run a campaign ad, said Executive Director Patrick Guerriero. He said he had warned the White House as Bush edged toward supporting an amendment that "despite our historic loyalty to the party and the president, we would be forced to speak out if gay and lesbian families were going to be used as wedge issues in swing states."

"The alternative -- for the president to have offered no solution while some out-of-control judges and mayors were trying to remake one of the most fundamental institutions of our society -- would have been a political disaster of the highest order," said Gary Bauer, who ran against Bush in 2000 and now heads the conservative think tank American Values. "I find it incomprehensible that any Republican, Log Cabin or otherwise, would conclude the president could be agnostic on an issue so fundamental." Bauer said Bush's stance would also help him with "culturally conservative" swing voters.

This group supported Bush back during the 2000 elections, but I wonder what ever made them think that he would be especially supportive of them? I can understand a gay person being generally conservative when it comes to economic and even social issues, but what I can't understand is how a gay person can dream that the Republican Party will ever be very tolerant of gays or gay rights.

Some gay conservatives may feel that the GOP's position on some economic or social matters outweighs their anti-gay positions, and that may be a reasonable conclusion. Bush seems to make it clear, however, that he and other Republican leaders will inevitably choose to please the Christian Right - and if that means putting an anti-gay amendment in the Constitution, so be it. How will they feel, though, if the Christian Right works to put other amendments in the Constitution - amendments that restrict the civil liberties of women or non-Christians? Will they finally wake up, or will it be too late for them? What to Republican leaders have to do before gays get the "we don't want your kind around here" message?

Read More:

• Ethics of Gay Marriage
• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right
• Christian Extremism
• Christian Nationalism
• Evangelical Christianity & Homosexuality