Don Sneed, who was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission
on HIV/AIDS and is one of President Bush’s highest-ranking openly gay appointees,
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JOE CREA
Friday, October 29, 2004
A new DVD being distributed by a group of black, gay Republicans supportive of
President Bush’s re-election suggests that gays are “misguided”
and argues against same-sex marriage rights.
Don Sneed, co-founder of the Dallas-based Abe Lincoln Black Republican Caucus,
which distributed the DVD, said in the one-hour conversation with ALBRC spokesperson
Anthony Falls featured on the DVD, that he does not “subscribe to the
notion that you have to be male, female, gay or lesbian.”
“[It is] as if we have two new genders pop up out of nowhere and become
a reality in the world today,” Sneed said in the DVD.
Sneed also dismissed the concept of African-American men on the “down-low”
— a term referring to black men who have sex with other men but don’t
identify as gay — adding that what is really at play is “black males
who reject the whole ‘lifestyle’ label and the description of being
gay as a ‘lifestyle.’
“A lifestyle is a misnomer to us. It’s not applicable. It is not
grounded in reality,” said Sneed, who is a member of Log Cabin Republicans
and the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, known as PACHA.
“To take a sexual act and to describe human beings by a sexual act is
certainly demeaning and devalues a human being’s life. I don’t think
black people have ever fully bought into that.”
The DVD, entitled “The Emancipation of the Homosexual — The End
of the Gay & Lesbian Rights Movement,” begins with images of a Dallas
sunset with a recording of Gloria Estefan’s “Coming Out of the Dark,”
playing in the background.
The opening credits dedicate the program to the “22 million who have
succumbed to the AIDS virus and the over 30 million who currently live with
HIV/AIDS.”
Sneed and Falls did not return repeated Blade phone calls seeking comment.
Sneed said homosexual attractions are a result of what he calls, “blended
soul polarities,” with the left side of the brain more associated with
masculine traits, while the right side is more feminine.
Sneed said gays are born with blended polarities — the more intense the
blend, the likelier you are to be attracted to members of the same gender. A
less blended polarity indicates you will find members of the opposite sex attractive.
Chris Barron, the political director for the Log Cabin Republicans, declined
to discuss Sneed or his views as expressed in the DVD, noting LCR was focused
on the upcoming election.
Some fellow PACHA members said that while Sneed’s views might be in the
minority, he brings a strong measure of diversity to PACHA meetings.
“He does have a valuable voice in the community, and I respect him for
that,” said David Greer who is gay sits on the 35-member PACHA board.
“He’s a unique voice that often times isn’t heard and I say
more power to him.”
Brent Minor, another gay PACHA member, said as long as everyone agrees on the
larger focus of preventing HIV/AIDS, Sneed’s views — while not shared
by many — are respected.
It is not clear to whom the DVD is being distributed. The group says it supports
the traditional definition of marriage, since “only a man and woman can
procreate children and this should be the cornerstone for defining the state
of marriage.”
But Abe Lincoln Republicans do “endorse the recognition and respect of
civil unions between members of the same-sex.”
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