On March 7, Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee and former governor of Montana, had a luncheon meeting in Washington with the Human Rights Campaign. News reports about the meeting have been “fascinating,” to quote Mr. Spock.
According to Agape Press, “A pro-family group is denouncing what it calls a “secret meeting” recently between the leaders of a powerful homosexual group and the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The Family Research Council says it found out about the March 7 meeting – which was closed to the press – just this week by way of an article in the Washington Blade." The Blade article begins: "Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot spoke before more than 300 gay rights activists in Washington on March 7, marking the first time a sitting GOP chair has addressed a gay audience.
“‘It was an historic moment for the gay community and the Republican Party,’ said gay Republican activist Carl Schmid, who worked on President Bush’s 2000 election campaign.”
The Family Research Council is, of course, livid. Their website says, “[T]olerance, a virtue all reasonable people endorse, is not the issue. HRC’s political agenda is the issue, an agenda that includes legalization of same-sex marriage, domestic partner benefits for unmarried homosexuals and lesbians, thought crime legislation, and adoption rights for gays. … [N]ews of this secret meeting is troubling if it marks any Republican retreat on the defense of marriage and the family.”
Lou Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition commented, "Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot recently met with 300 homosexual activists in a meeting hosted by the radical leftist Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The Washington Blade reported that Racicot said he was honored to be address this group and stated there would not be any “gay-bashing” political ads for GOP political candidates.
"Racicot apparently doesn’t realize that HRC activists don’t even like or support homosexual Republicans. They are simply using him for their own political purposes. HRC is an extreme leftist group that opposes President Bush’s economic, war, and social policies. Racicot wasted his time with HRC, but homosexuals gained a propaganda victory. "
The Washington Post had this to say: “Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, met last month with the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign – the first time, it appears, that an RNC chief has addressed a gay organization. And that has left some of his party’s conservatives fuming.”
The Culture and Family Institute was particularly irked. The Post reported: “'When you meet with a group that holds values that are antithetical to those of your base, you’re sending the signal that your base is being taken for granted or is not respected – that’s what Mr. Racicot has done here,” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, a think tank associated with the conservative Concerned Women for America. “It would be like Al Gore meeting with the John Birch Society.”
The C&FI themselves had this to say: "Racicot’s appearance before HRC—which has endorsed scores of mostly Democratic candidates over the years, and which supports homosexual “marriage” and “transgender” rights—is the latest sign that GOP elites are abandoning the party’s “family values” stance opposing homosexual activism. In recent months, some GOP leaders such as New York Gov. George Pataki have stepped up their support for pro-homosexual legislation.
‘"Some GOP leaders seem intent on cutting off their right arm in order to reach out with their left,’ said Robert Knight, director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. ‘This is foolish and will not go unnoticed by the party’s conservative grassroots.’"
The HRC itself has not issued any public statements or press releases on the meeting, so far as I can find online.
What do people think about this meeting? I personally see it as a breath of fresh air – that gay issues are not a single-party question but something that the Republicans are taking seriously as well. And I feel compelled to apologize to gay people for the attitudes taken in public by people who claim the name of Christian and make remarks like those quoted and linked to.
