Being a gay or lesbian Republican isn't easy. Social conservatives condemn your "homosexual lifestyle," while your friends (and lovers) on the left see you as part of the antigay problem. At the Republican National Convention, the Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP's largest gay and lesbian group, is working to resolve this tension by making the party more inclusive, along with fellow moderate groups Republicans for Choice and the Republican Youth Majority. The groups hoped that since the RNC was granting prime-time speaking slots to such socially moderate voices as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani, it might be possible to reflect a wider view on abortion and LGBT rights in the party's platform.

Wishful thinking. Even as the Bush-backed Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution tanked in the Senate and Vice President Cheney voiced his disapproval of such federal meddling in marriage, the platform committee wasn't playing gay ball. On August 26 the committee approved a platform that not only calls for a gay-marriage-banning amendment but also condemns civil unions and any legal recognition for same-sex partners.

"The platform is getting, quite frankly, worse and worse--it's offensive," said Jeff Bissiri, an LCR member and convention delegate. "As a concept our platform should be about a page long so as many people as possible can look at it and say, 'Yeah, I'm a Republican.'"

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