The GOP's dwindling anti-gay parade

Polls show Americans turning their backs on the divisive politics of homosexuality. Will hard-liners in the heartland, like Colorado's Marilyn Musgrave, be forced to follow?

By Michael Scherer

Read more: Politics, News, Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage, Michael Scherer, 2006 Elections

Illustration by Mignon Khargie / Salon.com

Nov. 3, 2006 | LOVELAND, Colo. -- In this season of porno-themed political ads and anti-gay marriage amendments, Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave is, surprisingly, tacking in a different direction. She no longer wants to talk in public about the "radical homosexual agenda" and its malicious impact on the American family. "I am running on a platform of security. Economic security. Border security. National security," the corn-husk blond Republican announced at the start of a candidate debate last week in Windsor.

This is a dramatic departure from the Musgrave of old, the Pentecostal mother of four who came to politics in 1990 as a school committee member determined to stamp out sex education. As a state legislator in Colorado, she campaigned constantly against gay marriage and attempted to deny benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees. In Congress, she has twice served as the chief sponsor of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. "As we face the issues we're facing today, I don't think there is anything more important than the marriage issue," she announced, just six weeks ago, at a Washington conference for values voters. "If we have gay marriage, our religious liberties are gone."

But in her home district, despite its conservative pedigree, a call to arms in the culture war no longer plays the way it once did. In recent weeks, she has backtracked on her Washington comments, saying they were taken out of context. At the same time, Musgrave's Democratic opponent, Angie Paccione, has gone on the offensive, despite polls that suggest about 60 percent of the district supports a constitutional ban on gay marriage. "Marilyn Musgrave is out of touch," Paccione says in a recent television advertisement: "She said that her gay-marriage agenda is the most important issue facing the United States of America  Are you kidding me?"

The reason for this turnabout may signal a transformation of the national debate over homosexual relationships, which have been a defining issue in recent election cycles. Across the country, candidates who have built their careers fighting homosexual rights now find themselves on the losing side of the polls. In Pennsylvania, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who once compared gay sex to "man-on-dog" relations, appears sure to lose his campaign for reelection. In Ohio, the polls are equally grim for Ken Blackwell, a Republican candidate for governor, who once said gay marriage "defies barnyard logic." In Minnesota, Republican state Sen. Michele Bachmann, who called gay matrimony a "ticking time bomb" because "little children would be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal," is fighting a tight battle for an open Republican seat.

Homosexuality is not the primary issue in any of these races, but it is notable that all of the candidates have tamped down their anti-gay rhetoric as the election approaches. "If things go as they look like they might, in the heartland of America voters are going to reject candidates with extremist political positions," says Ted Trimpa, a gay political activist and attorney in Denver who is active in Colorado politics. "What that says to me is the pendulum has swung, that the luster of using us as a political toy has passed."

To be sure, the victory against anti-gay politics will be incremental at best. Eight states are poised to pass constitutional amendments that will ban gay marriage on Tuesday, and in the South and Midwest, a growing number of Democratic candidates have come out against gay marriage, most notably Tennessee Senate contender Harold Ford Jr. But as Musgrave's tight race in Colorado shows, there are clear crosscurrents that suggest Americans are no longer as interested in politicians who use homosexuality as a wedge issue. Recently, Dick Armey, the former GOP House majority leader, was quoted saying the religious right has become a group of "real nasty bullies" who have distracted from the conservative cause. A recent study by the Cato Institute argued that libertarian voters, who have sided with the Republicans in recent years, are increasingly defecting, in part because of the GOP's focus on social intolerance. "They have cooler feelings towards the Christian Coalition and warmer feelings towards gays and lesbians than do other voters," the Cato authors wrote about the libertarian vote, which is strong in the Rocky Mountain West.

The trend can be clearly seen in Colorado, home to James Dobson's Focus on the Family, where voters are increasingly turning to the Democratic Party and away from the divisive politics of homosexuality. "It has sort of worn itself out for some voters," said John Straayer, a political scientist at Colorado State University. "I think the Democrats' success is as much attributable to what the Republicans are doing than to what [Democrats] are doing themselves."

As in other states, Colorado voters are expected to pass a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage on Tuesday. But in a sign of the times, polls suggest voters might also pass a referendum that will give gays and lesbians all the domestic partnership rights of heterosexual marriage.

Next page: A Republican in Colorado Springs bashes one of his own over "sleazy" anti-gay tactics