Dornan’s Wife Got Gays’ Help in Search for Ailing Brother

The wife of conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) enlisted the support of members of a gay Republican group to help locate a brother who had gone into hiding after learning that he was suffering from AIDS, it was disclosed Monday.

A day after publicly revealing that one of her younger brothers was dying of AIDS, Sallie Dornan confirmed that members of the Log Cabin Club of Orange County helped in the search for her brother during a two-month period earlier this year.

The Log Cabin Club of Orange County is a Republican organization of gay and civil rights activists based in Laguna Beach. Many gay rights activists accuse Rep. Dornan of being insensitive to the plight of gays and other minorities, and his appearances in his home district are often the focus of demonstrations and loud protests.

The congressman’s ailing brother-in-law, who has not been identified, eventually was located by one of his own brothers and currently is being treated for AIDS at an undisclosed location, Sallie Dornan said.

She said her brother, who is 48, apparently went into hiding earlier this year when he learned that he had contracted the AIDS virus. He had been ailing for about two years, she said.

Praying and Hoping

“It was just known (that he had AIDS) earlier this year,” she said. “There was a lot of wondering and praying and hoping. He hid on his own volition. (I guess) he feels some sort of shame. He was ill. I don’t know why they do the things they do.”

The congressman’s wife said her brother was missing “for a couple of months. I found him through one of my (four) brothers.”

When asked if members of the Log Cabin Club of Orange County had aided in the search, she confirmed late Monday that they had helped.

One member of the club, who asked to remain anonymous, said word spread among club members earlier this year that Sallie Dornan was asking for help in finding her gay brother.

The source said he was approached at a meeting of the California Republican Assembly by a member of a Los Angeles county chapter of the Log Cabin Club who said Sallie Dornan had asked him to make inquiries about her brother.

“We were asked did we know that Mrs. Dornan had a gay brother. My jaw fell open and I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” the source said. “She was looking for him because she heard he was dying of AIDS and she was anxious to meet him, and, I presume, make peace. This person who told me this said he had heard that the guy was in San Diego, and he gave me his name. I knew some people in San Diego and said I would try to help, to get the word out.”

Another source in Orange County’s gay community, where the word had spread that the congressman’s wife was looking for help, said it was felt that if they could find the missing brother, “it would put a feather in our cap . . . like putting in a good word with the congressman and maybe make him a little less strident in his attacks on the gay community.”

The congressman could not be reached for comment Monday, but his wife said there was never “any kind of deal to do any favors for them (local gays or the Log Cabin Club)” in exchange for helping to find her brother.

The revelation that Sallie Dornan had used local gay activists to search for her brother followed an incident Sunday in which she quarreled with a gay rights activist during a Town Forum meeting in Garden Grove.

It was at that meeting that Sallie Dornan revealed the family secret that one of her brothers was suffering from AIDS. She did so after angrily calling gay activist Jeff LeTourneau a “fag” while LeTourneau and her husband argued.

She apologized to LeTourneau for the remark and explained that she grew angry because “my brother is dying.” Rep. Dornan said later that while he knew that his brother-in-law is gay, he did not know that he has AIDS.

Remains Anonymous

Sallie Dornan said Monday that she never told her husband about her brother’s illness “because both my brother and my mother wanted it that way.” Her mother died recently, but her ailing brother still prefers to remain anonymous, she said.

“It is his illness and his life, and this is how he wants it,” she said. “I respect that.

“I felt a great deal of anger and I just wanted that young man to know that I understood what he was talking about,” she said in defending her remarks before the 200 people at the Town Forum.

“My husband has the biggest heart going. If anybody cares, it is Bob. They get the crazies out here, dressed like skeletons, and (they) beat up on Bob because he is conservative. It’s not fair.”

In defending his sensitivity to gay-rights issues, Dornan has said repeatedly that he has donated his last two congressional pay raises to AIDS hospices. But he amended that Monday to say he had not yet handed over any of the money. He said through his wife that he planned to donate the last pay raise, roughly $12,000 before taxes, to AIDS hospices operated in New York by Mother Teresa.

Voting Record a Target

LeTourneau, co-chairman of the Orange County Visibility League, a gay and lesbian activist group formed last November, said his organization specifically targeted Dornan for harassment because “he has consistently voted against anti-discrimination language against lesbians and gays and those infected with AIDS.”

He said the revelation that Dornan’s brother-in-law was dying of AIDS came as a surprise.

“I felt bad for him that here is a man who has AIDS, who has lost his lover to AIDS and is associated with a congressman who repeatedly makes homophobic remarks almost a daily occurrence,” LeTourneau said. “It seems ironic to me that the brother-in-law of this man is one of the chief crusaders against gay rights in the nation.”

LeTourneau said he was even more shocked when Sallie Dornan called him a “fag.”

“I didn’t really know what to say,” he said. “If she said it to me, she must feel that way. And how can she have such bigotry and hatred for a people when her brother is dying of AIDS?”