Bush Aide Karl Rove Gets Briefings on ‘Gay’ GOP Effort     2/7/2002

Bush Aide Karl Rove Gets Briefings on ‘Gay’ GOP Effort
By Peter LaBarbera

Charles Francis, a homosexual activist and friend of President George W. Bush, regularly briefs Bush senior advisor Karl Rove on his group’s effort to end the GOP’s opposition to homosexuality, according to a National Journal report.

Francis heads the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), a year-old organization that seeks to make homosexuality a “non-issue” in the Republican Party. The RUC has the backing of several prominent Republicans and Bush backers — including senior White House aide Mary Matalin, who is pictured prominently on the group’s Web site attending a 2000 fund-raiser for the Coalition. Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson (Wyoming) has taken a public role as the RUC’s honorary chairman, chastising Republicans who oppose homosexual behavior.

The January 12 Journal article by Shawn Zeller reports that Francis — a longtime Texas friend of Bush — and the RUC have adopted a “less confrontational” approach than the Log Cabin Republicans, another homosexual activist group, by not taking formal positions on pro-homosexual legislation such as the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

“All [Francis] seeks to change, he says, is the GOP’s tone. His method is simple and overtly political — raise enough funds for the party, and the party will bow to your wishes,” the Journal reports.

It continues: “Francis has received tacit approval for his effort from the White House, and he keeps Bush senior adviser Karl Rove briefed on his group’s plans.”

The six-page Journal article — essentially inside baseball on left-right schisms in the “gay” activist movement — reveals the political tightrope that Rove is walking as he simultaneously seeks to accommodate “gay” advocates like Francis and pro-family grassroots conservatives who object to homosexual activism.

Rove is on record welcoming “gay” support for the Republican Party, but also acknowledges that evangelical Christians and pro-family voters vastly outnumber homosexual voters within the party. Last month at the American Enterprise Institute, Rove warned that only 15 million evangelical Christians voted in the 2000 election, or 4 million fewer than should have turned out. He indicated that this was a result of not adequately exciting the GOP’s religious conservative base.

Rove meets and talks regularly with pro-family and conservative leaders, some of whom have voiced concerns about “gay”-affirming moves by the Bush administration, C&F Report has learned.

BAUER NOTES THREAT OF ‘UNITY’ COALITION
Meanwhile, former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer is warning pro-family Americans about the Republican Unity Coalition’s latest gambit to influence elections this fall. In his “End of Day” e-mail message sent out Wednesday, Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, a political action committee, said the RUC “is trying to find 1,000 homosexual Republicans who will donate $5,000 each to a political action committee [RUC PAC]. That $5 million will then be used to help elect so-called ‘tolerant’ Republicans and to defeat pro-family, pro-life conservatives. I believe they have a good chance of meeting their goal.”

Noting that “money talks,” Bauer writes, “If our opponents raise $5 million — or even $2 to $3 million — in the next few months, they will have an unbelievable impact on the balance of power within the Republican Party. Pro-family candidates will be intimidated.”

Noting that the leading homosexual lobby group, Human Rights Campaign, has raised upwards of $18 million in contributions for Democrat candidates, RUC’s web site states:

The RUC is dedicated to building a Political Action Committee that begins to approach the political maturity of what gay Democrats have accomplished in past years. The goal is to raise $1 million for RUC PAC by September 2002. We will raise this from individuals in contributions of $500 or more. [emphasis theirs]

Bauer said if the RUC succeeds in making the GOP go neutral or worse, “gay friendly,” it “would be a political disaster,” and pledged a counter effort by his PAC to elect pro-family and pro-life candidates in the Republican Party.

RIORDAN TESTS ‘GAY’ WATERS
On the opposite side of the GOP spectrum, Richard Riordan is burnishing his pro-homosexual credentials as the leading contender for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in California. Riordan, former mayor of Los Angeles, said through a spokesman that he was “open to discussion” of a Vermont-type homosexual “civil unions” bill that was recently stalled due to a concerted pro-family campaign against it.

The homosexual press reports that Riordan met last month with the California group Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality. His spokesman, Matt Szabo, characterized an exchange between Riordan and the group as follows:

The question was, would you support [homosexual] civil unions … and his answer was that he would be open to a discussion but he wasn’t familiar with all of the legal aspects.

Riordan has worked closely with Republican homosexual activists and opposed Proposition 22, the statewide initiative that defined marriage as between a man and woman in California. Prop 22 was approved in March 2000 with the support of over 61 percent of the state’s voters.

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