HUFFINGTON
09.30.12
THE PINK ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
June, he and several other Republican magnates started a Super
PAC devoted to raising money for
Republicans candidates who advocate same-sex marriage.
A TERRIER AND
AN ORANGE TREE
As the country’s two gay conservative groups went about their work
at the convention this year, so did
the country’s most strenuous opponents of gay rights. At a table at
the convention-center cafeteria,
waiting for his quesadilla, Tony
Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, dismissed
the relevance of Log Cabin’s participation in the platform-drafting
discussion. “We came out with a
very strong pro-family conservative document that underscores
the importance of traditional marriage,” he said. “Actually, it was
easier this year to get what longterm platform participants have
said is the most conservative document the GOP has ever had.”
Brian Brown, the head of the
National Organization for Marriage, stopped to talk while making
his rounds of the conservative radio hosts stationed on the second
floor of the convention center. He
said he had no objections to the
participation of gay people in the
Republican party. “Gay people can
be Republicans, Democrats — they
can be whatever they want to be,”
said Brown. He claimed that there
are even gay people who support
the National Organization for
Marriage, but they don’t “act on
those impulses,” he explained.
Given “the absolute failure”
of gay groups at the convention,
Brown continued, he wasn’t losing any sleep over either Clarke
Cooper’s maneuvering or the big
crowd at Homocon. He said he
was somewhat more concerned
about the usual array of activists
on the left and “big money folks
like Singer,” yet he expressed total
confidence that his group’s agenda
would ultimately prevail. “If you
want to throw social conservatives under the bus, you’re going
to lose elections, period,” he said.
“I don’t think the hard left realizes what’s about to happen. You’re
going to see President Obama lose
because of key swing states.” Gay
marriage, he predicted, will be “a
significant part of that loss.”
Log Cabin Republicans are
aware of the sway that Perkins,
Brown and other social conserva-