GOP admits mailing anti-gay fliers

[Johnny Stew]

GOP admits mailing anti-gay fliers
Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network
Published 2004/09/24


On Thursday the Republican Party owned up to sending mass mailings to residents of Arkansas and West Virginia demonizing homosexuals and predicting liberals would ban the Bible if Democrats won in November.

The campaign literature featured a picture of the Bible with the label "banned" slapped on top of it, and a picture of a man proposing to another man with the caption "allowed."

The New York Times reported Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee (RNC), confirmed the party did send the letters.

"When the Massachusetts Supreme Court sanctioned same-sex marriage and people in other states realized they could be compelled to recognize those laws, same-sex marriage became an issue,'' Iverson told the Times. "These same activist judges also want to remove the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance."

John Marble, the communications director for the National Stonewall Democrats, told the PlanetOut Network that Iverson's response was indicative of how the Republican leadership feels about LGBT Americans.

"The RNC spokesperson said that gay people basically brought this upon themselves by pushing for marriage equality," Marble said. "And they're trying these fear tactics in states that Democrats can win."

"The Republicans are acting like children," Marble continued. "You only own up to what you've been caught with. I wouldn't be surprised if they had done this in other states," he said. "They finally admitted it after a week and they did it without remorse. It's tantamount to saying they would be happy to do it again."

Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, predicted this tactic would reappear. In a published statement, the senator from North Carolina said President Bush "should condemn the practice immediately and tell everyone associated with the campaign to never use tactics like this again."

Christopher Barron, the political director for the Log Cabin Republicans, said, "This is disgusting -- an embarrassment for the RNC -- and I would hope that the people that get these mailings would be offended."

When asked if the RNC contacted the Log Cabin Republicans about the appropriateness of such tactics, Barron responded, "We're not endorsing the president, so they're not coming to us for what they can do."

"This is evidence that the president's re-election campaign has decided to use gays and lesbians as wedge issues in an attempt to win the election," he said.

"The RNC has several different outreach categories, including snowmobilers, but not gays and lesbians," Barron added.