‘Will Not Tolerate Bigotry’ : State GOP Rejects Bid to Decertify Gay Units

State Republican Party leaders Saturday headed off a major confrontation between conservative activists and homosexual-oriented Republican groups at a state GOP convention here this weekend.

In an emotional plea before a party committee, Ezola Foster, chairman of Black Americans for Family Values, and other conservatives asked that the state party take away the charters from the groups, including the Log Cabin Club of Orange County. They also wanted the party to stop the groups from using the Republican name.

“Specifically, what we’re asking is that the Republican Party not grant credentials to any political organization on the basis of sexual preference, be it homosexual, pedophile or heterosexual,” Foster told the volunteer organizations committee in an hour’s debate on the so-called “Resolution 2” that would have banned such clubs.

To reject the resolution, Foster said, would open the party to criticism that it was the “party of the perverts.”

But committee members, who chair statewide Republican clubs, voted unanimously to deny the resolution and leave the clubs intact.

Marty Keller, chairman of one of the gay-oriented groups, United Republican Clubs, said he looks forward to the day when organizations such as his can be dismantled because they aren’t needed “to defend ourselves against these kinds of attacks.”

Frank Ricchiazzi of Laguna Beach, a member of the Log Cabin Club of Orange County and the state GOP executive board, said he had expected the resolution to fail. But he was pleased that none of the 15 or 20 committee members in attendance cast a vote in favor.

“State Republicans are saying: ‘We will not tolerate bigotry,’ ” Ricchiazzi said.

The Log Cabin Club of Orange County is one of four GOP clubs in the state oriented to gay Republicans, with a total membership of about 775. None of the groups, however, restricts membership in its charter.

“There was no reason for us to vote to recommend revoking the charters,” said Dennis Catron of Santa Ana, chairman of the volunteer organizations committee.

The resolution was viewed as a potential embarrassment for the party as it enters the final weeks of the campaign. Party leaders, including state chairman Bob Naylor, said before the committee met that they hoped the measure would be defeated so that it would not be forced to the floor for a vote by the approximately 1,200 convention delegates.

But Foster and others were determined to have a confrontation on the issue and came to the committee meeting bearing signs that urged gays to go “back in the closet.”

Also appearing on behalf of the resolution was Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), who is outspokenly anti-homosexual.

Dannemeyer said he welcomed homosexuals into the Republican Party but objected to any attempt to “use the force of law to change the values of our society so that we will accept and equate homosexuality on the par with the heterosexual life style.”

Dannemeyer’s extreme views on AIDS--among other things, despite overwhelming medical evidence to the contrary, he has insisted that AIDS can be spread by “deep kissing”--were cited as the reason he was not allowed to fulfill a speaking engagement on health issues Friday as a surrogate for Vice President George Bush. Dannemeyer was replaced after Ricchiazzi and other gay leaders objected to his appearance.

“Dannemeyer is not doing so well this week,” Ricchiazzi said after the vote on the resolution to decertify gay Republican clubs. “His stars must be in the wrong position.”