By Bill Fancher, Fred Jackson, and Karen Battles
April 23, 2003

(AgapePress) - There are some who believe the Republican Party's concerted effort to garner the homosexual vote through a series of meetings with high-level GOP leaders and presidential appointments may backfire on the party.

Bob Knight

Presidential advisor Karl Rove is thought to be behind the effort. But Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute says it is a mistake in strategy.

According to Knight, "30 to 40 percent [of Americans] are self-identified conservative, evangelical Christians -- and the gays account for less than 2 percent [of the population]." While Knight acknowledged that both groups have some that "sit on the sidelines" at voting time, he believes that evangelical Christians comprise a large portion of the GOP base.

Knight says the GOP courtship of the homosexual vote is a blunder that will cost the party their support from the evangelical community. He adds: "They're risking alienating a large portion of their base, specifically the very people who give their time and treasure to the Republican Party. It looks like a suicidal move to me." [See Earlier Related Article]

Santorum Flap
In a related story, another leading pro-family voice is wondering why Republican leaders aren't coming to the defense of one of their senators who is under attack from pro-homosexual forces.

Gary Bauer

Gary Bauer, the head of Campaign for Working Families, says he is astonished that the Republican establishment has not come to the defense of Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who made headlines in the last few days for comments he made about a sodomy law in Texas that is being challenged before the Supreme Court.

Santorum said if that law is struck down, then people will have the automatic right to other sexual behavior in their home -- including polygamy and incest.

According to an article in The Washington Post, Santorum's spokeswoman, Erica Clayton Wright, said that the senator's comments related specifically to the Supreme Court case. She added that the senator "has no problem with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals."

Still, homosexual rights groups, including the Log Cabin Republicans, have condemned Santorum for those remarks and are demanding his resignation as the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual rights organization, has also entered the fray. In likening homosexuality to race and ethnicity, HRC spokesman David Smith compared Santorum to a racist.

"While we welcome his spokeswoman's clarification that he has no problem with gay people," Smith expounded, "it's analogous to saying, 'I have no problem with Jewish people or black people, I just don't think they should be equal under the law.'"

Bauer believes the political correctness must end, and it must be acceptable to resist the demands of the homosexual rights movement without being smeared as a bigot.

White House spokesman Ari Fleisher was asked again on Wednesday about the Santorum controversy. He indicated the president has not and will not be saying anything about it because Santorum's comments had to do with a case before the Supreme Court.

And while GOP leaders are thus far remaining silent, a Pennsylvania pro-family group is coming to Santorum's defense. Diane Gramley, the president of American Family Association of Northwestern Pennsylvania, says Santorum has been a consistent defender of family values -- and needs to be defended by those who feel the same way.

"[T]hose who believe the traditional family is the very foundation of a successful society should call on the GOP leadership to turn a deaf ear to those calling for the senator's removal," Gramley says in a news release. "It seems that the ones who are crying 'tolerance' the loudest are the ones who are the most intolerant towards those who do not totally agree with them."

She says it is apparent that those who have chosen to live in the homosexual lifestyle are determined to silence all who oppose them.

Meanwhile, Fox News reports that some Republican sources are raising concerns about the Associated Press reporter who first quoted Santorum and continues to report on the conflict. Her name is Lara Jakes Jordan. Her husband is Jim Jordan, a former official with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee who now heads Democratic Senator John Kerry's campaign for president.

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