May 28, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

When George W. Bush ran for president in 2000, he refused to meet with the Log Cabin Republicans.

But eventually — after he clinched the GOP nomination and was eager to brandish his image as a “compassionate conservative” — he met with the so-called “Austin 12,” a group of gay party activists who supported his candidacy.

In early April of that year, the dozen handpicked supporters, including D.C. Council member David Catania, flew to Austin, Texas, for what turned out to be an emotional meeting with the candidate at campaign headquarters.

Those present said at the time that Bush listened carefully to the Austin 12, declared himself a “better man” for having heard their concerns, and pledged to keep in place gay-friendly executive orders. In turn, his gay supporters helped Bush reap an estimated 25 percent of the gay vote.

Four years later, Bush has formally called for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and alienated not only members of the Austin 12, but also any openly gay Republican previously willing to work on his campaign, according to Catania.

“I would be completely surprised if there were any gay staffers in his campaign, at least in the upper echelon,” Catania said. “I don’t think that we’re welcome.”

It’s a factor that Catania said he believes will cost Bush the election, just as Barry Goldwater’s dismissal of blacks and the Civil Rights Act in 1964 resulted in sweeping victory for Lyndon Johnson, he said.

Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney’s openly gay daughter, works as director of vice-presidential operations, but the Bush table otherwise remains devoid of openly gay advisers.

“I’m not going to comment or provide information on the private activities of campaign staff,” said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, when asked if there were out gays among the president’s campaign advisers. “The president is leading based on principle. His principles are reflective of his values and his values are compassionate and conservative.”

Gay political organizations, both partisan and nonpartisan, have so far declined to formally reprimand the Bush campaign on its lack of diversity. Publicly, they continue to stay on message by denouncing Bush’s policies, not his staff.

In the closet
Yet, many gay Republicans, including some at Log Cabin, insist that there is in fact gay representation at the top level of the operation. But in an attempt to avoid an ’80s-style outing campaign against prominent members of the party, members of Log Cabin and the Austin 12 have refused to divulge any information about the lives of Bush’s closeted staffers.

“The reality is there are gay men and women working in tons of Republican offices, in the White House and in the president’s re-election campaign,” said Chris Barron, Log Cabin’s political director, repeating a quote he gave last month to the New York Times Magazine. “That’s all Log Cabin is willing to say on the matter.”

Patrick Guerriero, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said he has attended White House events, including one in which he personally asked the president not to endorse the amendment.

Bush’s support for the amendment has sent some gay Republican reeling. Now that conservatives have seized upon same-sex marriage as a wedge issue, many gay Hill staffers and campaign aides — who were largely hired before the marriage issue erupted — either personally fear for their jobs if they come out, or have been asked to keep their sexual orientation a secret, Republican staffers told the Blade.

“If gay advisers on the Bush campaign are smart and if they want a future, I expect they are being very guarded about their sexual orientation,” Catania said.

Top Bush team varies in ideologies
The top advisers on the Bush campaign — the approximately 15 in touch daily with Karl Rove, Bush’s top strategist — actually represent an array of Republican political ideologies. They range in spectrum from campaign chair Marc Racicot, the gay-friendly former governor of Montana, to legislative director Elise Finley, who came to Bush headquarters from her position as chief of staff to Rep. John Shaddegg (R-Ariz.), a strong opponent of gay rights.

Catania, who raised $80,000 for the president’s campaign before he dropped his support after Bush’s amendment remarks, calls the most visible Bush campaign staffer, Ken Mehlman, “the finest person I’ve met on the Bush campaign.”

Mehlman, a Maryland native and graduate of Harvard Law School, ascended through the Bush ranks during the 2000 campaign, after which he landed as director of political affairs at the White House. Known as a savvy ...