Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) are deciding their next move now that the Republican Party has taken a hard line against same-sex marriage, abortion and GLBT civil rights in their official platform. The club is expected to announce whether or not they will endorse President Bush immediately following the Republican National Convention held in New York City’s Madison Square Garden Aug. 30-Sept. 2.

“[The LCR was] going to endorse during the convention, but because 11 delegates from California were handpicked by the party here in California, specifically for their contributions to the party here, we didn’t want to throw that back in their face with a non-endorsement during the convention,” said Garrick Wilhelm, state political director of the Log Cabin Republicans. “… I expect that there will be an announcement of basically no action, which I feel reflects the feelings of most of the members of the Log Cabin Republicans.”

This year, the LCR had 25 delegates, 11 of which were from California, though none were from San Diego. In 1996 there were two LCR delegates and this year’s number of delegates is more than double the number at the 2000 convention, Wilhelm said, which is indicative of how the local parties are moving towards inclusion, regardless of the national platform.

“I think Bush threw the wrench in the wheel,” he added. “He’s the one that said ‘We no longer want the 1 million gays and lesbians that voted in 2000’ when he endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment. We asked and hoped for some conciliation from Bush and from the party, especially on the platform, but obviously those haven’t come.”

A panel of mostly conservative party members including Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan and Rick Santorum approved the party’s official platform Aug. 25; in addition to supporting a constitutional amendment effectively banning abortion, it calls for a ban on both same-sex marriage and any similar marriage-like arrangements, such as civil unions.

“It recognizes, unfortunately, how much of a hold the religious right still has on the party itself,” Wilhelm said.

Log Cabin’s executive director, Patrick Guerriero, called the platform “an outrageous insult.” National Political Director Christopher Barron said the platform was “vicious” and “mean-spirited,” adding that slotting moderate Republican speakers – like ex-mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and others who do not agree with the extremism of the platform – in primetime television spots is like trying “to put lipstick on the pig.”

“Truthfully, the primetime speakers are really the future of the party; that’s where we have to head as a party in order to survive; the rest is all politics,” Wilhelm said, noting that the LCR played a decisive role in lobbying the six moderate Republicans who voted against the Senate’s cloture motion on the Federal Marriage Amendment in July. “I think that the party that I love – the party that I know – is represented in those primetime speakers. That shows me that I do have a place in the party, we just have to now work on our own civil rights.”

The party platform came on the heels of Vice President Dick Cheney’s comment at a recent campaign rally that same-sex marriage laws should be left up to the states to decide – a position that echoes the beliefs of his wife, Lynne Cheney, and one he took in the 2000 presidential election but kept quiet about when President Bush backed the Federal Marriage Amendment.

“I think [Bush’s] perception was that the courts, in effect, were beginning to change, without allowing the people to be involved,” Cheney said at the Aug. 24 campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa. “The courts were making the judgment for the entire country.”

“Vice President Cheney I don’t believe flip-flopped,” Wilhelm said. “He has always stated that he believes this is a states’ rights issue. When it came down to the actual endorsement, he said that he supported the president in his action, and as vice president, that’s his job.”

The LCR ran a commercial during the week of the convention featuring Ronald Reagan at the 1992 convention saying, “Whatever history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.”

“It basically stresses that the conventioneers are trying to appeal to the fears of the radical right and gay-baiting Americans to vote for Bush,” Wilhelm said. “And that’s how we feel; we feel we are being used as a political ploy in an election year.”

A coalition of moderate GOP groups consisting of the LCR, Republicans for Choice and the Republican Youth Majority attempted to halt the conservative dominance in the party platform with the proposed “Party Unity Plank”. The argument against taking an uncompromising stand on same-sex marriage in the party platform is that the stance could alienate some moderate Republicans and cost the party the November election.

“We recognize and respect that Republicans of good faith may not agree with all the planks in the party’s platform,” the plank read. “This is particularly the case with regard to those planks dealing with abortion, family planning and gay and lesbian issues. The Republican Party welcomes all people on all sides of these complex issues and encourages their active participation as we work together on those issues upon which we agree.”

“The argument trying to be pushed by the right is saying that, by allowing people to disagree with the platform, you’re splitting the party,” Wilhelm said. “What we’re saying is ‘no, we bring the party into unity by allowing people who can disagree on one or two points and still agree on everything else. … So our view that allowing people to honestly disagree, but act in good faith for the good of the party and what we believe are the principles that really make America great, allow millions of people to all agree with the platform but can disagree on a few issues.”

The plank was not adopted, but had a chance to be introduced on the convention floor if six states vote for its consideration.

In a related effort to capture the middle, Republican Senator Bill Frist (Tenn.), the RNC’s platform committee chair, said in an interview before the convention began that the party intended to make clearer their statement of inclusion and of welcoming opposing positions, but not to go as far as to label same-sex marriage and abortion as acceptable areas of disagreement.

The change in language was not at all what the coalition of moderates wanted or expected, Wilhelm said.

“I hate that these contentious times happen, but they really mobilize our community to fight, as well as mobilizing the other side to fight,” he said, noting that national polls show only 5 percent of the country is undecided on how they will vote in the presidential election.

“I don’t think that there’s any way Bush believed that the Federal Marriage Amendment would actually pass,” Wilhelm added, addressing the options LCR members have on Nov. 2. “I wish that he had taken no stance on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which he certainly could have done and gotten away with, but he didn’t. And the part that hurts us most is that he didn’t [actually] care about the Federal Marriage Amendment – he used it to get votes. … So those that can look beyond that will vote for Bush and those who can’t may take no vote at all. I believe that a candidate needs to earn your vote, and if they haven’t earned your vote, there is no requirement to cast it.”