Mary Cheney Joins Homosexual Activist Group     4/25/2002 Mary Cheney Joins Homosexual Activist Group Organization Wants to Make Homosexuality ‘Non-Issue’ in the GOP By CFI Staff Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has joined the board of a homosexual activist Republican group that seeks to make homosexuality a “non-issue” in the GOP and compares opposition to homosexuality to racism. Homosexual author and activist Andrew Sullivan reported April 23 that the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC) founder Charles Francis said Mary Cheney’s: main focus will be to help the RUC reach out to gay and lesbian voters, as well as build bridges to all within the Republican Party. This summer, she will work with us to build the RUC membership network across the country. Mary’s experience, both in her past work at Coors and with the Bush/Cheney campaign, provides the RUC with a whole new level of judgment and political savvy. We are so proud to have Mary Cheney stand with the RUC. RUC, which describes itself as a “gay-straight alliance,” was founded by Charles Francis, a Texas friend of President Bush and a homosexual. Writing in the “Daily Dish” section of his personal Web site, Sullivan calls Francis “a close gay friend of the president, and a good friend of mine and supporter of this site.” Quoting the vice president’s daughter herself, Sullivan then writes, “Cheney puts it this way”: RUC is an organization that reflects my fundamental beliefs and principles. Working together we can expand the Republican Party’s outreach to non-traditional Republicans; we can make sexual orientation a non-issue for the Republican Party; and we can help achieve equality for all gay and lesbian Americans. According to its Web site, RUC (which is supported by senior White House advisor Mary Matalin) seeks to build support from “individuals who want to help the Party and its candidates get over the issue of sexual orientation, just like the GOP got over the issue of color in years past.” Its supporters include noted Republicans like retired U.S. Senator Al Simpson (Wyoming), who serves as the RUC Honorary Chairman, homosexual congressman Jim Kolbe (Arizona), former members of Congress Mike Huffington (of California, who is also a homosexual) and Susan Molinari (New York), former Los Angeles mayor Dick Riordan, and former president Gerald Ford. DISUNITY COALTION? CFI senior policy analyst Peter LaBarbera said, “This ‘unity’ coalition will not unify the Republican Party but tear it apart. It trivializes people’s deeply held religious convictions by seeking to make homosexuality a ‘non-issue’ in the GOP. And it insults advocates of healthy morality by comparing opposition to homosexuality — the clear teaching of Christianity and other major religions — to racism.” “Homosexuality should no more be a non-issue in the Republican Party — or any party — than abortion, high taxes, pornography, excessive government regulation, or other issues that concern and motivate the party faithful,” LaBarbera said. He noted that the Republican Party platform has long included language critical of “gay” activist goals such as “gay marriage” and opening the military to homosexuals. CWA PRESS RELEASE On April 19, before Sullivan’s report about Mary Cheney and RUC, CWA issued the following press release headlined, “Culture and Family Institute Memo to GOP: Homosexual Activism Within Party Alienates Grassroots Voters, and Will Hurt the Bush Presidency”: WASHINGTON, D.C. — As homosexual GOP activists convene in the nation’s capital for the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, the Culture & Family Institute of Concerned Women for America reminded Republican Party leaders of the dangers of advancing the homosexual agenda. CFI Senior Policy Analyst Peter LaBarbera commented this morning, “Catering to a Republican brand of homosexual activism will hurt support for the GOP among the party’s core base of religious — and moral-minded voters. Recently, senior presidential advisor Karl Rove said the party needs to do more to attract religious conservatives. If President Bush continues to support pro-’gay’ policies launched under the Clinton administration, he will alienate these voters.” “The Log Cabin Republicans’ most visible appointment in the Bush administration, AIDS Policy director Scott Evertz, has been an embarrassment to the administration, publicly contradicting Bush policy,” LaBarbera said. “Evertz, a former Log Cabin official in Wisconsin, has shown more loyalty to the homosexual community than to Bush.” In an interview with the “gay” press, Evertz came out for needle exchange programs for drug addicts — even though Bush has denounced needle-exchange as signaling “nothing but abdication.” The White House quickly disavowed Evertz’s remarks, but he continues to make questionable public statements that antagonize grassroots GOP conservatives. Minority voters, especially Hispanics — whom Republicans hope to draw into the party — appear to oppose homosexual activism more strongly than white voters. For example, in March 2000, 58 percent of white voters in California cast ballots supporting Proposition 22, which said only true marriages (between one man and one woman) would be recognized in the state. That compares with 65 percent of Hispanic voters who supported Prop 22, and 62 percent of Black voters who supported the traditional marriage ballot measure.