Quayle Tries to Distance Ticket From Anti-Gay Views

Vice President Dan Quayle attempted to distance the Republican ticket Tuesday from the strident anti-gay rhetoric at last month’s GOP convention, and appeared to soften his language on abortion.

On the second day of a three-day Western campaign swing, Quayle appeared live on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles to take call-in questions. A viewer, identified only as “Robert” from West Hollywood, said convention speakers had “attacked and degraded” gays and lesbians. He asked how gays could trust the Administration after it had allowed the convention to be dominated by “homophobic” speakers.

“Listen to what the President says and what I say,” Quayle said. “And, more importantly, watch what we do. We are the ones that have implemented a non-discrimination policy when it comes to gays and lesbians. That is the Administration’s record and we are proud of that record.”

But Quayle drew the line on homosexuals serving in the military, saying that is a different issue. He said Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, does not approve of gays in uniform.

Democratic nominee Bill Clinton is an outspoken advocate of gay rights and has pledged to overturn the military’s ban on homosexuals.

Quayle said that the harsh convention remarks of Patrick J. Buchanan and Pat Robertson did not represent his or President Bush’s views. “I don’t think you heard any of that rhetoric coming from me,” Quayle said. “You didn’t hear it coming from the President.”

In their speeches, Robertson warned that Clinton wanted to “appoint homosexuals to his Administration;” Buchanan that Clinton’s agenda included “homosexual rights.”

Quayle’s convention speech contained an oblique reference to homosexuality. Parents often try to teach their children right from wrong, only to see “their values belittled and their beliefs mocked,” he said. “Americans try to raise their children to understand right and wrong, only to be told that every so-called ‘lifestyle alternative’ is morally equivalent. That is wrong.”

The next day, he denied in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he was “gay bashing,” saying that everyone has a right to make his or her own choice. But he added that the gay “lifestyle is wrong.”

Tuesday, in the hourlong appearance on KTLA, Quayle urged gays and lesbians to vote for the GOP if they agree with the party on most issues, even if they cannot accept some of the platform.

Quayle said he himself is at odds with part of the platform. “As a matter of fact, if you go down all the 150 issues (addressed in the platform), I’d even have some disagreements with them,” he said. But he refused to say what he opposes.

The platform is the most conservative ever adopted by the party. Among other things, it declares its opposition to using civil rights laws to protect gays from discrimination and permitting gays to adopt children. It also calls for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions.

The Administration resisted efforts to soften the platform plank, despite pleas of abortion-rights supporters.

But, with the GOP ticket trailing in the polls in California--which has not voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1964--the vice president appeared to put a softer edge on his language.

“Marsha” from Los Angeles asked him how he, “as an affluent white male privileged to make (his) own decisions,” would ensure that women can decide for themselves whether to have an abortion.

Quayle responded: “The issue of abortion is one where reasonable men and women disagree. I believe abortion is wrong. The choice should be life and not abortion. We’re trying to get more reflection on the issue of abortion before the decision is made.”

He was not asked about the proposed constitutional amendment, and he did not bring it up. Instead, he said he had hoped the Supreme Court would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that granted women abortion rights, sending the matter back to the states. But, in a ruling on a Pennsylvania law earlier this year, the court expressly upheld Roe--but also upheld most of Pennsylvania’s restrictions.

“I thought the court would overturn Roe vs. Wade,” he said. “Then California would have its own law, Indiana would have its own law, and states would deal with this issue as they saw fit. It would put it back in the political arena.”

This is not the first time that Quayle has appeared to back away from a hard line on abortion. Recently, in an appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” he was asked what he would do in a few years if his daughter, as an adult, came to him and asked him about getting an abortion. Quayle said that he would encourage her not to do so, but that ultimately it would be her choice. And, in an appearance on “Face the Nation” last month, he hedged when asked if he supported the strict constitutional amendment advocated in the platform.

During the KTLA interview. the vice president appeared relaxed, even jovial. He attributed his new-found confidence to experience in the job and lessons learned from his disastrous 1988 campaign. “And believe me,” he said, “the second (campaign) is going to be a lot better than the first one.”

Quayle was also challenged by a viewer on the Administration’s record on AIDS. He said that AIDS funding had increased in each of the last four years and that the Administration was trying to speed approval of new AIDS medications.

“We’re doing a very adequate job,” he told his questioner, identified as “Lisa” from Hollywood.

Also Tuesday, Quayle met with former President Ronald Reagan for 45 minutes at Reagan’s Century City office. They discussed deregulation and Quayle’s ongoing war with Hollywood over the morality of television and the movies.

The vice president said that Reagan reminisced about the old days in Hollywood, when the movies depicted a more wholesome America, and urged him to continue to speak out.

“I’m fairly confident to say that Ronald Reagan strongly supports what I’m doing and saying,” Quayle said.

He also visited two trucking firms in East Los Angeles, which he said were examples of the economic benefits of deregulation. In a labored effort to tie deregulation to his campaign theme of family values, Quayle said that lower air fares and cheaper long distance telephone rates help keep families together by encouraging loved ones to visit and call each other.

“Having it cheaper to fly and cheaper to make a long distance phone call helps keep families together,” Quayle said. “When families are apart, at least they can be together talking on the phone or together taking a vacation or visiting a relative or trying to help someone to come home for a period of time.”