Abstract

Republicans Relaunch the Antigay Culture Wars

The author claims that Republicans plan to play upon widespread opposition to gay marriage among Americans to win votes in the 2004 election. As George Bush's poll numbers began seriously dwindling, Karl Rove and the White House political strategists decided to reach into their bag of tricks and come up with a good old staple of reactionary politics: homophobia. The decision to scapegoat gay and lesbian Americans was poll-driven by an antigay backlash that gathered steam in the wake of the Supreme Court's June 26 decision, in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down laws making gay sex between consenting adults illegal -- the so-called sodomy laws. Just two days after Gallup released its poll showing the backlash, Bush unexpectedly used a Rose Garden press conference to announce that he'd assigned lawyers to come up with a plan to stop gay marriage. Since then, the Republicans have ratcheted up their anti-gay marriage crusade. At the state level, too, Republican antigay initiatives are snowballing. With 2004 shaping up as another close election, Rove & Co. want to energize the Christian-right base to which Bush is already so heavily indebted (it motored his 2000 primary victories against John McCain) and insure a maximum turnout among the AWOL evangelicals and other Christian traditionalists.The antigay bias that permeates the Republican Party can be clearly seen in Bush's judicial appointments. Among the unalloyed homophobes Bush has nominated for the federal bench: Jay Bybee, Michael McConnell, Charles Pickering, others. INSET: Judgment Day.