Gay-Rights Activists Criticize Issa Camp

Representatives of two gay-rights groups on Sunday criticized San Diego-area congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Darrell Issa for comments made by his campaign manager that some perceived as anti-gay.

The comments, made by Issa campaign manager Scott Taylor and published in Sunday’s editions of The Times, were in response to an announcement by former congressman and 1994 Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Huffington that he was considering running for governor as a moderate.

“I just have the feeling voters aren’t going to embrace the first bisexual gubernatorial candidate,” Taylor said of Huffington, who lives in Brentwood and is openly gay. A spokesman for Huffington declined comment on Sunday.

Though Issa’s communications director immediately called Taylor’s comments reckless and asked that they not be published, members of Gov. Gray Davis’ anti-recall campaign organized a conference call Sunday afternoon in which members of the gay-rights community lashed out at Issa.

“Gay baiting has no place in any campaign, no matter what the circumstances,” said Seth Kilbourn, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, a nonpartisan organization that supports lesbian, gay, transsexual and transgender rights. “The fact that Darrell Issa has injected this ugly message into this campaign is, I think, a disturbing preview of things to come.”

Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, another gay-rights organization, said he was “extremely disturbed” that Issa would “target groups of Californians in order to advance his own political interests.”

Kors added, “We can end up with [a governor] who truly believes that someone who is bisexual couldn’t be -- or shouldn’t’ be -- governor.”

Representatives of the Issa campaign did not return telephone calls seeking comment.