GOP at odds over gay marriage

"This is our line in the sand," says Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Republican group. "We were forced by a sense of history and responsibility to respond immediately and harshly. Our membership demanded it, and our integrity demanded it."

The campaign, scheduled for launch later this month, is targeted at states such as Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. One television commercial will reportedly feature Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney recently said he supports Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. But in 2000, Cheney, the father of a gay daughter, had a different outlook.

"The fact of the matter is we live in a free society, and freedom means freedom for everybody," Cheney said in a debate against Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who was Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in the 2000 campaign. "And I think that means that people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It's really no one else's business in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit behavior in that regard." Asked specifically "whether or not there ought to be some kind of official sanction" of such relationships, Cheney said, "I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area."

As John Kerry might say, that was then, this is now. Kerry, the prospective Democratic presidential nominee, is against a federal constitutional amendment but recently expressed support for a state constitutional amendment which would effectively ban gay marriage. The Democrat's effort to walk a fine line illustrates the political volatility of the issue for Democrats and Republicans.

In Massachusetts, the debate over an amendment to ban gay marriage continues. It was triggered by a November decision by the state's highest court, which ruled it unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage. Under the court's timeline, gay marriages will become legal on May 17. The deeply divided Legislature met for two days in mid-February but could not reach agreement on the wording of a ban that would go on the ballot.

The results of a special election showdown for a seat in the state Senate could change that. Republican Scott Brown, a gay marriage opponent, who was supported by Governor Mitt Romney, narrowly defeated Democrat Angus McQuilken, a gay marriage supporter. Locally, the outcome is viewed as a clear victory for Romney, a vocal gay marriage opponent who backed Brown. However, in Washington, Guerriero, a former Massachusetts state representative and mayor, downplayed Brown's victory, saying, "the race was way too close for it to be seen as any consensus on gay marriage."

Log Cabin Republicans are focusing on the specific effort to change the federal Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

"There is something strange and awkward about having the president try to amend the most sacred document in the nation to deny rights," says Guerriero, pointing to prominent Republicans who are distancing themselves from the president's position. In California, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would not stand in the way of any effort to change California law to allow same-sex marriages and would have "no use" for a constitutional amendment banning them. In New York, Republican Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another Republican, have said they don't see a need for a constitutional amendment. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani recently told the New York Daily News, "I don't think you should run a campaign on this issue."

Bush's position, meanwhile, pushed the Log Cabin Republicans to "the most forceful and public a disagreement with a president in the organization's history," says Guerriero.

Bush versus gay marriage. That is what the Bush campaign apparently wants. Come November, we will see if that is what it really needs.

Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.