The LCR is supposed to be a political organization of like-minded Republicans within the G/L community, not a gay-rights advocacy organization. Why not leave rights-cases to the SLDN, and the HRC which has millions to spend on rights-advocacy, and let the LCR concentrate on Republican politics? The LCR should spend 2005 positioning itself as the spokesman for the one-million-plus Bush-voters within the G/L community, even if they are not all registered-Republicans.
GayPatriotWest suggests that "... Log Cabin could better reach out to the heartland if its leaders started by promoting the GOP -- the party to which they claim allegiance -- to the gay community. This may not earn them accolades from the anti-Bush leadership of gay rights' groups based in D.C. and other liberal enclaves, but it would give them practice in articulating the concerns of Americans outside the blue islands where Democrats are strong.
I would add that we start within our own community. We need to encourage LCR members who do not live in the NYC-Beltway-WeHo Axis of Chardonnay to attend the LCR Convention this March in New Orleans.
On Dec 12th, Ben Stein wrote in the American Spectator a commentary about Bush supporters in Hollywood that is also applicable to many Republicans within the G/L community....
"...The man at the Christmas tree tent in Malibu kept winking at me and nodding when no one else was looking. I smiled and kept looking at the trees. (In Malibu, we Jews have Christmas trees.) Finally, he motioned to me to come over to is table. He cupped his hand over his mouth and took my hand. "We won," he said. "We won."I knew exactly what he meant. "You can talk about it," I said. "This is America.""Yes, but it's also Malibu and I don't want people yelling at me."
A few minutes later, I was grabbing a shopping cart at How's Market in the Trancas section of Malibu when a sweet faced middle aged woman approached me carefully. Then she saw a young couple nearby and turned away. Moments later, she ran into me at the egg cooler, looked around to make sure there was no one looking or listening and said. "I love what you say about politics on TV. You're so brave. I'm on your side. There are some of us here but we keep our mouths shut.""You don't need to," I said. "The election's over. We won.""Yes, but it's not over out here." . . . .
. . . ."This is the way it is here. We meet in smoky places. We give the high sign, we nod knowingly. We are like members of the Maquis in Occupied France. Or early Christians emerging from the catacombs in Caligula's Rome. We are the GOP in Hollywood, and on the West Side of L.A. The culture here is so dominantly left-wing, PC, vegan, hate-America that many of us feel we have to behave as if we were underground.
