I have to say that before this push for a constitutional amendment [to ban gay marriages], the commitments made to me in April 2000 had been kept. I went to Austin with four things I wanted. I wanted an openly gay or lesbian speaker at the Republican Convention -- and you'll recall [Bush] agreed and he announced that Rep. Jim Kolbe [R-Ariz.] would speak, and Kolbe did. I asked that there be a continuation of the nondiscrimination orders against gays and lesbians in the federal workforce that President Clinton had signed. Mind you, [that was] a big deal in 2000. The party's track record had not been stellar, so for the president to continue Clinton's executive order was a huge win. It would have cost him nothing to simply cut that tie. We asked that he appoint openly gay [men and women], and he kept that promise. And we asked that he continue the dialogue -- and that's where it faltered.
What's interesting is how they tried to float this constitutional amendment with a patina of tolerance, in that [they'll] continue to allow civil unions. That in and of itself reflects a certain measurable improvement over where the party was four years ago. You have the president basically saying we can accept civil unions but we can't accept marriages. Where they lost me was enshrining this in the Constitution.
Where, if at all, do you think the issue might hurt the president politically?
I don't see this issue hurting him at all. It was selected because it's a winner.
What about the exit polls from 2000 that suggested Bush won 25 percent of the gay vote?
That's not important at this point because it's not like we all live in the same state, so we can't move a state. It's a smidgen here and a smidgen there -- although in a close election like that in 2000 it could make a difference. Right now they're not worried about us anymore. And when I say "they," I don't mean the president, I mean the folks around him. They want to win Midwestern states. The election will be won or lost in the Midwestern states.
Among Catholic voters in Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania?
Actually, in poll numbers Catholics are more "live and let live" on this issue than Protestants. It's not about winning Catholics, it's about winning seniors. And they need to win back the undereducated portion of the Midwestern population -- the blue-collar whites. This is an issue that polls well among those two groups.
Last month Log Cabin members in North Carolina were tossed out of the Republican State Convention, and then you were uninvited to the Republican National Convention. Do you think others will follow your lead, particularly those who have been active in the Republican Party?
Whether or not a few [gay] leaders stay with the party until they drop dead isn't the issue. The fact of the matter is, there ain't no there there anymore. The constitutional amendment issue is kind of a watershed moment. It reminds me of the 1964 election, and this is why: In 1960 Richard Nixon won 26 percent of the black vote. We forget that it was 44 years ago, but the Republicans were still winning a quarter of the African-American vote. That went from 26 percent in 1960 to 12 percent in 1964. What made that happen? [Nominee Barry] Goldwater was opposed to the 1963 Civil Rights Act, and the African-American community viewed that as a betrayal. For 40 years, we have never as a party recovered from that.
In 2000 George Bush won 25 percent of the gay vote. You see the parallels? The president decided to trot out a constitutional amendment to remind us, even though we are already reminded daily, that we are second-class citizens. In case we harbored any illusions that we were equal, he wants to write this into the Constitution. He'll be lucky if he gets 12 percent [of the gay vote] in this election.
Republicans may not care. Demographically, though, Republicans cannot continue to build the party by subtraction: no blacks, no Hispanics, no gays or lesbians, no abortion rights. Pretty soon your whole electoral base is the same complexion, the same orientation, the same socioeconomic level. Who would want a country that's governed like that?
Next page: Gays in the White House "understand the unspoken rule, which is, Just shut up about it"