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Analysis
Gay Conservatives: No Room at the Table?
by Chuck Cummings
"The fact of the matter is that homosexuals
have done pretty well in the system,...this
claim of discrimination, I think, is a red her
ring." Conservative Congressman William
Dannemeyer turned toward the television
camera and, nodding his head slowly, defend
ed his vote against the federal Hate Crimes
Act
Facing him in the small studio of C-SPAN
(Congressional Satellite Public Affairs
Network), former Maryland Congressman
Robert Bauman was generally conciliatory
toward fellow conservative Dannemeyer. He
argued that the Hate Crimes Statistics Act
would merely document violence directed
against gays and lesbians, among others, and
was therefore a benign piece of legislatioa
But the 'Ayatollah of Orange County,' as
one writer dubbed Dannemeyer for his rabid
anti-gay politics, was unmoved. He stood
equally firm when Bauman stated that being
gay was not something he had chosen for
himself. Nor would he choose it, given the
grief he said it brought to his family.
Robert Bauman, author of The Gentleman
from Maryland: The Conscience of a Gay
Conservative, argued in vain that gays and
lesbians don't want special rights, as the
Californian repeatedly charged; they just want
the "right to be left alone and conduct their
private lives in a manner which every other
American has had guaranteed by the
Constitution from the beginning."
But despite such well reasoned attempts to
align gay rights with conservative philosophy
Bauman was consistently rebuffed by
Dannemeyer.
Dannemeyer remained unmoved when a
black lesbian telephoned from Ann Arbor,
Michigan, and said that, on top of being
called a "nigger," being labeled a "dyke" by
homophobes like him had led her to two sui
cide attempts. In fact, during the entire 90-
minute debate on "Homosexual Rights in
America" William Dannemeyer stuck firmly
to his paranoid beliefs that the "homosexual
ethic" is in direct conflict with the "heterosex
ual ethic," and that the "homosexual move
ment... [is] asking for no less than the com
plete restructuring of American life."
Bauman's inability to get to first base with
Dannemeyer, his philosophical bedfellow in
issues other than gay/lesbian civil rights, is
symbolic of the dilemma facing gay conser
vatives across the country. How do they
Jim Marks
"The fact of the matter is that homosexuals have done pretty well in the
system,... this claim of discrimination, I think, is a red herring."
develop political clout when their non-gay
counterparts consider them deviant and dan
gerous?
Conservative gays and lesbians are by
no means a new phenomenon. A list of their
politically active kin would include the late
Roy Cohn, chief counsel to Senator Joseph
McCarthy's communist witch hunts of 1953
54, and the late Terry Dolan—co-founder of
the National Conservative Political Action
Committee (NCPAC). Even Bauman—
dragged from his seat in Congress in 1980
soon after being pulled out of the closet when
he was caught procuring young hustlers dur
ing a raid on the Chesapeake Bar in down
town D.C.—had been a favorite son of the
New Right. He helped found the American
Conservative Union in 1964 and served as the
Maryland chairman for Ronald Reagan's
presidential campaigns of 1968, 1976, and
1980.
The price of entry into the inner circles of
conservative power was not only denial of
one's homosexuality, but also a certain
amount of BYOP (Bash Your Own People).
According to a 1987 article, Bauman once
derailed a fair housing bill in Maryland
because it would have banned discrimination
against gays. And Terry Dolan issued a
NCPAC fundraising letter in which he stated
'Our nation's moral fiber is being weakened
by the growing homosexual movement'
Is it possible to be a conservative power-
broker and be "out" about one's homosexuali
ty?
The answer is no, according to a gay
Republican activist here in Atlanta. "Gays
have no chance in the conservative (wing of
the) Republican party," he said. But neither
does the conservative wing have a future, he
feels. "Eight years of Ronald Reagan are over,
and the party is learning that America is
swinging toward moderation. It is in the mod
erate part of the party where gays have a
chance."
Moderate Republicanism, in his view,
stands for a strong national defense, low
taxes, less federal government and more
active local and state governments; "the gov
ernment closest to the people should take care
of the people." He emphasized that moderate
Republicans also embrace social justice and
civil rights, adding that his party is the party
of Abraham Lincoln.
The gay conservative view of social jus
tice, as espoused by Bauman during the C-
SPAN debate, would come up short in the
view of most gay activists. Bauman hinted at
endorsement of contact tracing for people
who test HIV-positive as new AIDS drug
therapies are developed. When Dannemeyer
stated his opposition to the "states of the
union" granted licenses to same-sex couples
to marry, Bauman agreed that licenses or for
mal ceremonies for gays and lesbians were
not appropriate, since "the purpose of mar
riage is the procreation of children, and only
men and women, husband and wife, can
achieve that" He did support laws "recogniz
ing the fact that two people of the same sex
may live together and have certain...legal
rights that accrue from one to the other in
their status."
The local activist is currently developing
plans to have a gay Republican group in place
by the end of this year. A partial list of goals
include: participating in the 1992 reapportion
ment debate to try to carve out House and
Senate districts where gays and lesbians
would be a majority or the dominant minori
ty; recruiting strong candidates to run in state
and local elections; and letting people know
that gay does not automatically mean liberal.
Congressman Dannemeyer and former
Congressman Bauman listened intently to a
call from Laguna Beach, California. The
caller challenged Dannemeyer to justify his
sponsorship of a resolution to "de-charter"
gay and lesbian "Log Cabin" Republican
clubs in California. "If we're gonna 1 charter
clubs based on homosexuality, are we gonna'
charter clubs based on the fact that (people)
want to molest children?" Dannemeyer asked.
Visibly angered, Bauman looked to the
debate moderator and related how the
California Republican Party officially cen
sured Dannemeyer for his actions. According
to Bauman, California Governor George
Deukmejian and Lee Atwater, Republican
National Committee Chairman, opposed
Dannemeyer. The resolution was defeated,
though Dannemeyer claims 59 percent of
party delegates supported his positioa
How many Dannemeyers are waiting
within the Georgia Republican party? No one
knows; the party has not yet been approached
by an organized contingent of its gay and les
bian constituents, according to the local
activist "Among moderate Republicans, it's
not homophobia so much as political reality
that we'll have to deal with." A reality similar
to that faced by blacks in the early sixties, he
said, when courting the black vote was politi
cally ill-advised.
Changing that reality will require deft
organization and a high degree of visibility.
That visibility will be the biggest challenge to
anyone who, like Bauman, finds the words
"gay" and "pride" contradictory.
Chuck Cummings, who is neither
Republican nor conservative, is a past editor
of the AALGA newsletter, "Crossroads."
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8/Southern Voice • March 15,1990