Quayle’s Visit Draws Gay Protesters

Gay activists and others protesting Republican Administration policies waved signs, blew whistles and chanted gay rights slogans Thursday as Vice President Dan Quayle arrived for a private political fund-raiser at a home here.

Although some of the two dozen protesters doubted that the vice president would notice or care about their presence on nearby Chapman Avenue, their commitment to making a vocal protest within earshot of GOP leaders remained high.

Gathering about noon--less than an hour before news broke that Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson had tested positive for HIV--the group criticized as insensitive the AIDS policies of President Bush, Vice President Quayle, U.S. Sen. John Seymour and Gov. Pete Wilson.

“Dan Quayle, because he is vice president, needs to see us to know that fundamentalist, right-wing views are not in the majority,” said 33-year-old David Cammack of Fullerton. “My lover has AIDS and he will die some day.”

The protesters included members of the Orange County chapter of ACT UP, Queer Nation, Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, Pledge of Resistance, and the Orange County Coalition for Peace and Justice and Integrity, an Episcopalian Church support group for gays and lesbians.

Other protesters criticized the Republican political leaders for not supporting abortion rights, for continuing monetary aid to El Salvador as well as for inattention to issues affecting minorities and the homeless.

“We are here, we are queer, we are angry, get used to us,” gay-rights advocates shouted as Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, watched from their limousine. The two were on their way to a $250-a-person lunch fund-raiser for Seymour’s reelection campaign.

Mel Trickey, co-president of Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, said politicians have forgotten that even in the conservative bastion of Orange County, there are voters with differing political views.

“We are here in Orange County and we are not going to be quiet any longer,” Trickey said of his group.

Newport Beach resident Robert Dohr, 35, said it was ironic that Bush would denounce the gubernatorial candidacy of Louisiana Republican David Duke because of Duke’s past affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, but still support California Republican leaders who upheld Wilson’s veto of Assembly Bill 101, which would have outlawed job and housing discrimination against gays.