Mainstream Americans Reject Anti-Gay Stand

Your glowing profile of Ralph Reed, the front man for failed presidential candidate Pat Robertson’s political organization, glossed over the group’s losing record on social issues (“Ralph Reed: Onward Christian Soldier,” May 1). Reed intentionally obscures the Christian Coalition’s core anti-gay platform because he knows that when mainstream Americans understand the group’s divisive and discriminatory agenda, they reject it.

In the midst of last November’s Republican sweep, voters rejected Robertson’s attempts to push his anti-gay agenda through state and local ballot initiatives. The Christian Coalition dumped 650,000 “voter guides” in Oregon directing people to approve a discriminatory measure that would have denied basic rights to gay and lesbian people. Oregonians voted it down. In conservative Idaho, voters who sent a full GOP slate to Congress also rejected an anti-gay initiative.

Polls of people who voted to turn Congress over to the Republican Party show that seven of 10 support equal rights for lesbian and gay Americans. Majorities of Republicans, Independents and Democrats reject the Christian Coalition’s anti-gay platform. Robertson and Reed hide from their record on this issue in order to appear mainstream. The press should not let them get away with it.

ELIZABETH BIRCH

Executive director

Human Rights Campaign Fund

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Ralph Reed has the arrogance to conclude that anyone who doesn’t march lock-step to his thunder isn’t a good Republican.

Reed and his lemming-like sanctimonious followers should appreciate that the Republican Party includes pro-choicers, gays, non-Christians and feminists. Most independent-thinking Republicans simply wish Reed would sit down and shut up.

LIBRADO DIAZ

San Diego