Both parties are using homosexuality for political advantage. Clinton is the first presidential standard-bearer to openly seek gay votes. If elected, he says, he would lift the ban against gays in the military and sign gay-rights legislation. The Republicans are more than content to see Clinton endorse gay rights. Despite a lull in the family-values offensive, gay-bashing has overtaken opposition to abortion as the best way to rally the religious right, the GOP’s core constituency.
With more than 9 million voters, the homosexual community is organized and rich enough to command attention. The Human Rights Campaign Fund, the largest gay-and-lesbian political group, with 60,000 members, is among the fastest-growing political-action committees. It will contribute up to $1 million to campaigns this year. Sexual preference does not dictate party loyalty, and there has been no “gay gap” in voting behavior. Indeed, George Bush won close to 40 percent of the gay vote in 1988. “If you’re well off, there’s no reason to think you haven’t moved with your income to the Republicans,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the communications school at the University of Pennsylvania. As president, Bush initially had considerable support in the gay community. He endorsed the recommendations of the AIDS commission, he invited gay activists to the White House for two bill signings, and he and Barbara met with AIDS-afflicted gay men.
But then came a bruising primary fight with arch-conservative Pat Buchanan. Bush has always been fearful of the right, and to shore up his conservative base, his operatives stooped to gay-bashing. Speakers at the Republican convention portrayed gays as abnormal and immoral, and Bush did nothing to temper the attacks. The GOP’s angry words could turn gays into single-issue voters for Clinton. " I don’t know a single gay Republican who is planning to vote for George Bush," says Gregory King, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, which has endorsed Clinton.
Many Republicans are uncomfortable with the harsh rhetoric of Houston. Social progressives like Massachusetts Gov. William Weld support gay rights as a bulwark against government interference in private lives. With polls showing that the attacks in Houston backfired, Bush’s top aides have disavowed open gay-bashing. That does not mean that they will stop their surrogates from taking the low road, especially if Bush falls further behind. In selected spots, such as the Biblebelt South, the GOP will almost certainly use anti-gay ads against the Democrats’ " You can’t control the groups that support the campaign, and sometimes you don’t want to," says a GOP official.
For Clinton, embracing gay voters seems to undermine his moderate image. But if he can keep the debate out of the moral thicket, it’s a plus. Most Americans oppose job discrimination (78 percent in NEWSWEEK’S poll). But a clear majority are also uncomfortable with same-sex marriages. Clinton is on record as opposing gay marriage, but so far he has avoided saying whether he thinks being gay is “normal.” Clinton started talking about gay rights only when he became a presidential candidate, a fact that strikes some Bush aides as hypocritical. They point out that Arkansas has an anti-sodomy law, which Clinton has done nothing about.
Gay activists will be as important to Clinton’s get-out-the-vote effort as the Christian Coalition will be for Bush. The sharp differences between the parties generate the worker bees that are essential for victory. But both sides risk turning off many voters if their rhetoric seems too polarized. As NEWSWEEK’s Poll shows, most voters are in the middle. The candidates are struggling to find that safety zone without losing the political benefits of exploiting the lavender revolution.
