Republican gays want to be heard

Is the South Carolina GOP tent big enough to include gay Republicans?

Katon Dawson, the state party chairman, wasn’t prepared to answer that question.

“I need to be unavailable on this one,” he said, promising to get back later.

He never did.

It’s not easy being a gay Republican in South Carolina, the buckle on the Bible Belt.

Log Cabin Republicans — the nation’s largest gay GOP organization claiming more than 10,000 members — recently christened a new chapter in Charleston. It’s one of a handful in the South.

Philip Bradley, a Republican activist in Charleston and a Log Cabin member, is helping start the South Carolina chapter.

“Things are under way,” he allows, before catching himself by saying he is “not in the position to be talking a whole lot on the record.”

Several gay Republicans feel the chapter needs to start out quietly and avoid doing anything that would scare people, like making a big deal out of the gay marriage issue.

Many of the state’s gay Republicans remain in the closet for fear of being ostracized. But some are stepping forward acknowledging their homosexuality and desire to be heard.

“We’re getting more money and new interest in new chapters than we’ve ever had,” says Mark Mead, national director of public and political affairs for Log Cabin Republicans.

But he concedes it’s more of a challenge in the South, where “the party is not as welcoming.”

Gay Republicans tend to be very conservative, and that’s reflected in the Log Cabin platform. They favor lower taxes, a strong national defense and smaller government.

The S.C. GOP ignores gay Republicans at its own peril, Log Cabin officials say.

The Charleston chapter hopes to “elect open-minded, big-tent Republicans,” Mead says.

Tige Watts, founder of Campaign Research and Strategy in Columbia, estimates there are 44,000 gay voters in the state, mostly in the Charleston area, and he says any party or candidate would be foolish to ignore them.

“These people not only vote but make contributions,” says Charlie Smith, a Charleston Realtor active in the gay community.

Twenty-five percent of gays voted Republican nationally in the 2000 election, according to exit polls.

President Bush got off to a rocky start with Log Cabin Republicans in 1999 when he declined to meet with them because it would “create a huge political nightmare for people.” He reversed himself later and met with some of the group’s local members from around the country, including Bradley. Senior administration officials briefed Log Cabin members earlier this year.

It will be an adjustment for the state GOP if it decides to open the doors to gay Republicans.

“It’s going to take Republicans awhile to get comfortable with gay Republicans in their political party,” says Smith.

Former 9th Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Schwacke, a local Republican lawyer, is a member in the Charleston chapter but shuns interviews. He told the City Paper there that it would be an unwise career move for him to make a strong public political affiliation.

Mead, who was born in Beaufort, says the state GOP might as well get used to having gay members in the party.

“We’re part of the party, and we’re not going to go away,” he says. “We’re going to keep it a big tent.”