Gay Group Hosts State GOP Visitors

Prominent California Republicans gathered Friday for a “unity breakfast” in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of George W. Bush, co-hosted by a new GOP group urging tolerance for gays and lesbians.

The breakfast was organized by the Republican Unity Coalition, an alliance of homosexual and heterosexual Republicans. The group was co-founded by Brian O’Leary Bennett, former chief of staff to retired Orange County Rep. Robert K. Dornan.

Bennett said Bush is committed to an “inclusive party that focuses on its agreements, not differences.” The event was co-hosted by the Republican National Congressional Committee and its chairman, Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.).

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About 400 people attended, with former U.S. Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming acting as master of ceremonies. In his remarks, Simpson paid tribute to Laguna Beach activist Frank Ricchiazzi, who Simpson said was the first person to ask him to address the Log Cabin Club, a gay Republican organization.

“This is proof positive that the Republican Party welcomes all into our ranks,” said Bennett, now an Edison executive and a member of Bush’s transition team on energy policy.

“Especially in our state, our party desperately needs to grow,” he said of the California GOP, which has the lowest representation in Sacramento in decades.

The breakfast host committee included Republican state Senate Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga; Bush’s California campaign manager, Jerry Parsky; Orange County Lincoln Club director Buck Johns; Irvine Co. executive Gary Hunt; political consultant Kenneth L. Khachigian; John McGraw and Shawn Steel, the chairman and vice chairman of the state GOP; former county supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Harriett M. Wieder; former Assemblyman Mickey Conroy; political consultant Eileen Padberg and Brea Mayor Bev Perry.

The coalition hosted a breakfast in August during the Republican National Convention, honoring commentator Mary Matalin, recently named a counselor to incoming Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to the president. It was the first such event to openly reach out to gay and lesbian Republicans, Bennett said.

Bennett, 45, said about 1 million self-identified gay and lesbian voters cast ballots in November for Bush--about 25% of the total number of such voters.

“Our mission is to make sexual orientation a nonissue in the Republican Party,” he said.