By Matthew E. Berger, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, Dec. 17, 2007

When he was mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani almost always participated in the city's annual gay pride parade, usually joining the procession at 44th Street to avoid Catholic protesters who would gather in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral seven blocks away. "The fact that I am a Republican but still a very strong supporter of gay rights is actually in some ways more difficult than being a Democrat and a strong supporter of gay rights," he told The New York Times in 2000. "And I think that people appreciate that."

	As he courts religious conservatives, Rudy Giuliani appears to be playing down his longtime ties to gay Republicans.

Now that Giuliani is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, the religious conservatives who protest the parade are his target audience, and Giuliani's self-described strong record on gay rights has receded into the background. When he speaks of how he revitalized New York City, he never mentions that he supported and signed domestic-partnership registration for same-sex couples, or that openly gay staffers were omnipresent in his administration.

But behind the scenes, Giuliani has garnered strong support from gay Republicans and leaders of their organization, the Log Cabin Republicans. Several of his county chairmen are openly gay, and many gays believe that Giuliani will bring his tolerance on gay issues to the White House as well. But few are actively saying it.

Gay Republicans acknowledge that they have to walk a tightrope when discussing Giuliani's support for their policy agenda, or their preference for him among the GOP field. Any signs that he is the choice of gay Republicans could hurt Giuliani with evangelical voters, and an endorsement from the Log Cabin would likely do more harm than good, especially in Southern states like South Carolina.

Frank Ricchiazzi, who helped found the Log Cabin in the 1970s, says that everyone in his community knows that "Uncle Frank" is Giuliani's campaign chairman in Laguna Beach, Calif. He says he supports Giuliani because of what he did in New York City, as well as his record on gay issues. "He did a lot to clean it up," Ricchiazzi said. And the fact that Giuliani openly dressed in drag at press dinners demonstrates that he has a comfort level with the gay community. "When someone gets dressed up in drag, they show it's not an issue," he said. "He doesn't care."

Indeed, Giuliani writes in his memoir, Leadership, that he lived with a gay couple after his separation from his second wife, Donna Hanover, and he talks vividly about returning to the home on the night of September 11, 2001. But there are recent signs that Giuliani's comfort level with homosexuality is changing. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press on December 9 whether homosexuality was aberrant, Giuliani responded, "My moral views on this come from, you know, the Catholic Church, and I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality as a, as a way that somebody leads their life is not, isn't sinful. It's the acts, it's the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the, not the orientation that they have." He went on to lump himself in the same category, noting, "I've had my own sins that I've had to confess and had to deal with and try to overcome."

Wayne Besen and other gay activists believe that Giuliani's decision to distinguish between people and their acts was a shift to the right for him, and a signal to Christian conservatives. "He was speaking in code," said Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, who called on Giuliani to clarify his comments. "Using 'act' rather than 'orientation' was straight from the Vatican playbook." Other gay activists have suggested that evangelical leader Pat Robertson's recent endorsement of Giuliani showed that the candidate's bigger concern was not attracting gay support but garnering a larger percentage of the Christian vote in key states.

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said she wouldn't expand on the mayor's recent comments and added that he wouldn't clarify them either. "At the end of the day, the mayor is seeking support from all types of Republicans," she said. "The mayor's record is out there on his relationship with the community. That speaks for itself."

Although the campaign has established coalitions to unite supporters in the African-American and Latino communities, as well as among small-business owners and law enforcement officers, it has undertaken no similar effort to rally gay Republicans. Comella said that the campaign was forming coalitions only "where we believe we could get support from a grassroots perspective."

Carl Schmid, who was part of a group of gay Republicans who reached out to George W. Bush in 2000 and is a longtime HIV/AIDS activist, is now serving as Giuliani's co-chairman in Washington. He said he would like to see a more organized effort for Giuliani among gays. "It's a natural," he said. "He believes in equality for all people. It's been pretty difficult to be a gay Republican the last few years because the party has really taken some conservative positions. Giuliani can bring all people together."

A recent Hunter College poll of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans found that Giuliani was the presidential choice for half of the respondents who said they would be voting in a Republican primary or caucus. When Giuliani was placed in a head-to-head matchup against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he garnered 11 percent of the gay vote.

Some have suggested that the Log Cabin should officially throw its arms around Giuliani, especially because so many of its members are backing him. Of the five national board members who have donated to presidential candidates through September 2007, all but one has given money to Giuliani. James Kirchick, an assistant editor at The New Republic, wrote an online column for Advocate magazine earlier this month, arguing that "sitting this GOP primary out is a grave mistake for Log Cabin" and urging the group to back Giuliani. "At the end of the day, I don't see the point of your group if you don't stand up for your agenda and candidates who are supporting your agenda," he said in an interview.

Traditionally, the Log Cabin decides whether to endorse the Republican nominee for president based on his record on gay rights. It supported Bob Dole in 1996, only to have its donation returned from the campaign once the contribution became public. Although it endorsed Bush in 2000, the group's board chose to withhold its backing four years later to protest Bush's support for a federal marriage amendment. The decision garnered headlines.

Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon said that the group has not historically backed a primary candidate, although several Republican contenders, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have been endorsed by the Log Cabin in non-presidential elections.

But although Log Cabin is not endorsing a candidate yet, it is hardly staying neutral. The group has sponsored radio and television ads in New Hampshire criticizing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for raising taxes (subscription) and changing his position on abortion (subscription). Significantly, the ads never mention gay rights. It is a strategic decision, analysts said, to get the Log Cabin message to a broader GOP audience.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden attributed the anti-Romney ads to Log Cabin support for Giuliani. "Most people do know what the agenda is of Log Cabin Republicans," he said. "They do recognize this is an attack on the governor because he is at odds with them on the marriage amendment."

But Sammon said that it is an effort to show that Romney has changed his position on issues. "As a Republican organization that cares about the future of our party, we thought it was appropriate to educate voters about his real record," he said, noting that if the issue were just gay marriage, the Log Cabin could take ads out against most of the GOP contenders. Some analysts have suggested that the group is targeting Romney in part because of his active opposition to efforts to legalize gay marriage in his home state.

The issues become even more complicated now that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has emerged as a first-tier Republican candidate. Huckabee has been under fire for comments he made in 1992 suggesting that people with AIDS should be quarantined. Asked about the comments in recent days, he said he could have chosen his words more carefully but stood by the remarks.

Log Cabin leaders said they were in consultation with several campaigns about their agenda, but they would not go into details of those discussions. Huckabee surprised many when he said at a recent debate that he would accept the Log Cabin's endorsement. "You know, in my position in this entire election, I need the support of anybody and everybody I can get," he said. Comella would not say whether Giuliani would accept the endorsement, calling the question hypothetical.

Log Cabin leaders are adamant that the group will not back a candidate in the primaries, but they dispute the notion that such an endorsement would damage the candidate's election prospects. Any ad that an opponent might run exploiting an endorsement would only backfire, they said. "Every poll we have ever come up with has shown clearly, when you play the gay card, you lose 4-to-1," Ricchiazzi said.

No candidate is going to agree with the Log Cabin on everything, he said. "Does Rudy have to broaden his positions to get this nomination? To a certain point," he said. "Do I believe he'll backstab us? No way."