The gay voter's guide to the GOP

Mike Huckabee: The Kinder, Gentler Evangelical

As he travels around the country, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee likes to offer this two-line joke. "I'm a conservative," he says. "I'm just not angry about it." The phrase aptly describes his approach to gay and lesbian issues. In substance, the ordained Baptist minister matches up with most on the religious right in opposing reforms that would permit gay marriage. He says he will lead a effort to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, opposes hate-crimes bills and ENDA, and supports continuing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. As governor, he led a state effort to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual union.

But on the trail, he tries to avoid coming off like a proselytizing preacher, downplaying his faith-based disapproval of homosexuality. "I want us to be very careful that we don't come across as having some animosity or hatred toward people, even [those] whose lifestyles are inexplicable to us," he said at the Values Voter Debate. In stump speeches, he often makes only passing reference to "traditional family" issues. He has told reporters that he is open to state-sponsored civil unions that would bestow the legal rights of marriage on gay and lesbian couples. [Editor's Note: Huckabee now says that he "either misspoke or misunderstood" the question asked by a Concord Monitor reporter in 2006. "I have never supported civil unions, and I don't. I don't think it is something that is a good thing," Huckabee said in a November 2007 interview with Salon.]

At the same time, his language for describing homosexuality can sometimes hit a wrong note. During a New Hampshire debate in June, he referred to homosexuality as an "attitude." He also supported a state ban on gay couples becoming foster parents in Arkansas. "That whole issue is more about the gay couple than it is the child. And I think that is the mistake," he said in a January interview. "I feel that we have got to do what is best for the child. I am not sure that putting them in an atmosphere that is still pretty controversial, or still anything but the mainstream, is the ideal situation for the child."

Tom Tancredo: The One-Issue Candidate

The campaign of Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo is so devoted to a single issue -- ending illegal immigration -- that he hardly speaks about anything else. That said, he takes a hard-line view of most policy matters concerning homosexuality. "We have to remember that we are always just one kooky judge away from actually having homosexual marriage forced on all the rest of us," he warned at the Values Voter Debate on Sept. 17.

He supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposes ENDA and hate-crimes laws for sexual orientation, and once voted to prevent the District of Columbia from offering domestic partnership benefits to homosexual employees. But he rarely brings up the issue while campaigning. When asked recently how he would deal with the "homosexual agenda," he responded with a quasi-libertarian argument. "The president of the United States simply can't make a rule, sign an executive order, changing the morality of the country," he said at the debate. "It can't happen that way. You do so by leadership."

Duncan Hunter: The Straight Man

On the campaign trail, California Rep. Duncan Hunter boasts of having led the opposition to gays serving openly in the military. "I think it's only because we have been able to resist that particular attempt that we have the very best military in the world today," Hunter told the Values Voter Debate.

Hunter is among those few Republican candidates who advance the concept that homosexuality itself is immoral. To explain his opposition to ENDA, he says the Boy Scouts have a right to ban gay scout leaders. He is against hate-crime laws for sexual orientation and in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. "Every American family should have the right to say it's a matter of moral principle that we do not accept homosexual activity," he said at the debate.

Sam Brownback: Defender of the "Family"

Soft-spoken and sincere, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback has fashioned himself as the Senate's most outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage. He has spent hours on the floor of the Senate with charts showing the declining rate of heterosexual marriage in Scandinavian countries, where gay unions have been sanctioned for years, arguing that any redefinition of marriage in the United States could have devastating consequences on heterosexual monogamy.

A Catholic convert, Brownback has made marriage and abortion the two central issues of his campaign. At the Values Voter Debate, he criticized President George W. Bush for failing to spend more political capital on passing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying. "I wish President Bush would have led on it," Brownback said.

When Gen. Peter Pace called homosexuality "immoral," Brownback was one of the few Republicans to offer his public support. "It was part of his faith, and he believed that this was the right thing to stand up for," Brownback said. "And I stood up for General Pace, because we should stand up for other people when they will stand up for these basics." He is against ENDA and hate-crime legislation and supports the current military policy on homosexuality.

In the wake of the Pace controversy, a reporter asked him to describe his feelings about homosexuality. "I do not believe being a homosexual is immoral, but I do believe homosexual acts are," he told the Associated Press. "The church has clear teachings on this."

Alan Keyes: The Lord's Messenger

A perennial political candidate and former State Department employee, Keyes announced his candidacy in mid-September. It has all the markings of a moral crusade, with gays and lesbians in the crosshairs. "Abandon God with respect to the family, and we have no claims to rights," he announced at the Values Voter Debate, during a discussion of same-sex marriage. He has called homosexuality the practice of "hedonistic self-gratification," and described Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary as a "selfish hedonist." After his own daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, announced she was a lesbian, she said he stopped funding her college education.

Keyes' last turn in the spotlight came with his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate against Barack Obama. After losing in a landslide, Keyes refused to congratulate Obama, saying the Democrat stood for "a culture evil enough to destroy the very soul and heart of my country."

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