The gay voter's guide to the GOP

Ron Paul: The Libertarian

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas sees the issu e of homosexuality, as he sees most things, through the lens of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. He believes that government's role is to stay out of the lives of citizens. It follows, therefore, that he is against a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In fact, he is not even sure that government needs to be involved in marriage in the first place. "Marriage only came about, and getting licenses only came about -- in recent history for health reasons," said Paul, who is a medical doctor, in a "Values Voter Debate" on Sept. 17. "True Christians, I believe, believe that marriage is a church function, not a state function. It's not a state function. I don't think you need a license to get married. We should define it."

This door swings both ways. He is also against federal laws that could protect gays and lesbians from discrimination, including hate-crime laws and ENDA. He says the current Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is "a decent policy." If Paul becomes president, it is a safe bet that he will not do much to help or hinder the cause of gay and lesbian rights. "All individuals have the right to their life if they do no harm," he said at the debate, before a deeply religious crowd. "You don't try to do a whole lot about it."

Fred Thompson: The Third Way

During his announcement tour in early September, Fred Thompson told reporters that he had found a third way through the thicket of the gay marriage debate. He would not support amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage. But he did support amending the Constitution to prevent state or federal judges from legalizing marriage without the consent of state legislatures. He also wanted to amend the Constitution to make it clear that a same-sex marriage in one state did not have to be honored by any other states. "There have been no state legislatures that have affirmatively allowed gay marriages in the United States," he said on Sept. 7, as his campaign bus barreled through northern Iowa. "It's a judge-made problem."

His timing was unfortunate, because on the same day Thompson spoke those words, the California Legislature approved a bill to give gays and lesbians the right to marry, though the bill is likely to be vetoed by the governor. But Thompson's intent was clear. He was staking out a position to the right of Giuliani and McCain, without abandoning his belief that states should have autonomy to do what they want in a federal system. "A marriage is between a man and a woman, and that has been accepted through the millennia as the basis of civilization," he said. "But I am also a federalist."

At an event in Sioux City, he was asked by a voter to explain what he would do about sexual "deviancy." Again, he said government should take a mostly hands-off approach. "Society's position and the government position, and what the government ought to do to exercise the power of the federal government, is not necessarily the same thing," he said. On other gay-rights issues, he generally toes the larger Republican Party line. He opposes hate-crime laws to protect gays, opposes ENDA, and supports the military's policy as it stands today.

In his short time as a candidate, Thompson has seemed to downplay most social issues. He is hesitant to speak about his own religion. Though he grew up in the Church of Christ, he does not regularly attend church in his present-day hometown of McLean, Va. Predictably, these positions are not good enough for the Focus on the Family's Dobson. "Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S.?" Dobson wrote in a recent e-mail to supporters. "Not for me!"

Mitt Romney: The Switch-Hitter

This is a tough guy to figure out. More than any other top-tier Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been running aggressively as the best candidate to protect the "traditional family" from the onslaught of gay and lesbian marriage. Back in 2005, Romney traveled to South Carolina to make his case. "Today same-sex couples are marrying under the law in Massachusetts," he warned a Republican crowd. "Some are actually having children born to them. We've been asked to change their birth certificates to remove the phrase 'Mother and Father,' and replace it with 'Parent A and Parent B.' It's not right on paper. It's not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and a father."

Strong words indeed. But Romney's own paper record tells a different story. Back when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994, he told the voters of Massachusetts that he would be a better leader for the gay community than his rival, incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy. "I am more convinced than ever before that as we seek to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent," he wrote in a letter just before the election. In a debate with Kennedy, he said anyone should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts "regardless of sexual orientation." Back then, he supported adding sexual orientation to employment nondiscrimination laws. He called Don't Ask, Don't Tell the "first of a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military." As recently as 2002, his campaign distributed a pink flier to celebrate Pride Weekend. "All citizens deserve equal rights regardless of their sexual preference," the flier read.

In more recent years, he has become one of the nation's most public supporters of amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage, even testifying before Congress on the issue. He has come out against ENDA and announced that he supports the current military policy as it stands.

In other areas, he has not completely reversed himself. In recent interviews, he has defended his appointment of gay judges as governor and maintained that he supports contractual domestic partnership benefits for gay couples. "There are other ways we raise kids, and that's fine -- single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids," he said at a high school in Concord, N.H., in June. "That's the American way to have people have their freedom of choice."

The Romney record on these issues is such a muddle that his performance in the White House is difficult to predict. On the one hand, he is clearly willing to exploit the culture war for political ends and make common cause with those parts of the Republican Party most opposed to homosexual rights. He has also reversed his positions on several major issues, like gays in the military and employment discrimination, when there was a political advantage to be gained. On the other hand, his history on the issues suggests that the ties to his new friends do not run deep. "If people are looking for people who are anti-gay, they aren't going to find that with me," he said at one stop in Iowa this year. "But I am going to fight to protect traditional marriage."

Next page: When his daughter announced she was a lesbian, she said he stopped funding her college education