GAY REPUBLICANS
Ads Fault Republicans Over Gay Marriage Amendment
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, NYTimes on the Web, August 30, 2004
New York City -- Two gay groups -- one of them a gay Republican group -- are starting advertising campaigns in the New York market during the Republican convention to attack the party's conservative turn, including the president's support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
The Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay party members, is expected to announce today that it will be running commercials in the New York market this week, people briefed on the plans said.
One person briefed on the plans said the commercials would quote from President Ronald Reagan on the subject of the party as a "big tent."
Christopher Barron, political director for the Log Cabin Republicans, disputed certain descriptions of the plans but declined to elaborate.
Last week, the Log Cabin Republicans condemned the final draft of the Republican platform for its position on same-sex unions.
The first draft supported President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Conservatives on the platform committee added provisions opposing same-sex domestic partnerships or civil unions created by states as well.
Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said that it was beginning to run television commercials using Vice President Dick Cheney's recent sympathetic comments about same-sex unions to attack the proposed amendment.
The organization's advertisement quotes Mr. Cheney saying: "Lynne and I have a gay daughter.
We have two daughters and we have enormous pride in both of them." He also says, "My general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone," and, "people ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."
Mr. Cheney, whose daughter Mary is openly gay, made the comments in Davenport, Iowa, last week, explaining that he believed that decisions about marriage should be left to the states but that President Bush feared federal judges might usurp those decisions.
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