Oct 15, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Two high level officials with the Republican National Committee acknowledged they are gay after becoming the latest GOP targets in an outing campaign by D.C. gay activist Michael Rogers.

Jay Banning, the RNC’s chief financial officer and director of administration, and Daniel Gurley, the RNC’s national field director and deputy political director, each confirmed they are gay in telephone conversations that Rogers recorded last month and released to the media two weeks ago.

Rogers disclosed details of his conversations with Banning and Gurley, including their acknowledgement that they are gay, on his Web site, Blogactive.com.

Gurley also discussed his and Banning’s sexual orientation in an interview with the Blade, saying the outing by Rogers did not appear to have any negative consequences for the two men in connection with their RNC jobs.

“The reaction with Jay, at least to my knowledge, has been the same as it’s been with me,” Gurley said. “Everybody’s been completely supportive of us.”

Rogers said he targeted to the two RNC officials after learning about them from reliable sources who knew them, including sources within the Republican Party.

“They are gay while they are working to oppress gay people,” said Rogers, who has said his aim is to expose gay members of Congress and their staffs, as well as others involved in politics, if it can be shown that their actions harm gay rights advances.

He said Banning and Gurley were “guilty” of helping to advance the RNC’s election year efforts to use gay Americans and gay civil rights as a wedge issue. He pointed to a recent mailing the RNC sent to households in West Virginia and Arkansas linking “liberal politicians” to efforts to ban Bibles while allowing same-sex marriages.

Rogers also pointed to the platform the Republican Party adopted at its convention in New York City in August. The platform, among other things, calls for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, a continued prohibition against gays serving openly in the military, and strong opposition to legislation prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Spokespersons for the RNC did not return repeated calls seeking comment on the outing of Banning and Gurley, who became the highest-ranking known gays in either the Republican or Democratic parties.

Banning also did not return calls from the Blade.

Outing ‘counterproductive’
Gurley told the Blade he disputed Rogers’ claim that he is causing harm to gays but declined to discuss details about his job duties. He said that although he doesn’t work directly in the RNC’s policy-making section, he does work on efforts to help GOP congressional campaigns.

“I think it’s totally counterproductive,” Gurley said of Rogers’ outing campaigns. “What he’s doing is making it more difficult for people to help from the inside,” referring to closeted gays working for Republican organizations or members of Congress.

Rogers’ outing campaign against Banning and Gurley came less than two months after Rep. Edward Schrock (R-Va.) ended his re-election bid and announced he was retiring from Congress following a series of Web site postings by Rogers saying Schrock was gay.

In postings on his site, Rogers released audio recordings of a telephone message Schrock allegedly left on a telephone sex line catering to gay men, in which the man speaking sought other men for sexual encounters. Rogers has declined to disclose how he obtained the recorded phone message.

In his two terms in the House, Schrock voted against the interests of gay civil rights and AIDS-related causes in every case such issues arose, prompting the Human Rights Campaign, the national gay political group, to give him a rating of 0 out of a possible 100. Even after being outed, he voted two weeks ago in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban states from marrying gay couples.

Dreier targeted also
Earlier this month, Rogers also posted information on his Web site targeting Congressman David Dreier (R-Calif.). Dreier is a 12-term congressman and the influential chair of the House Rules Committee.

Rogers’ postings about Dreier came one month after Dreier declined to say if he was gay or straight when asked about his sexual orientation during a radio interview at the Republican National Convention in New York City.

Gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile conducted the interview with Dreier on the Sirius Satellite OutQ Radio network on Aug. 29.

Signorile raised ...