Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis

WASHINGTON — At a State Department ceremony this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly acknowledged the family members of Mark Dybul, whom she was swearing in as the nation's new global AIDS coordinator.

As first lady Laura Bush looked on, Rice singled out his partner, Jason Claire, and Claire's mother. Rice referred to her as Dybul's "mother-in-law."

The celebratory moment for a gay couple was emblematic of the political identity crisis facing the Republican Party, two years after an election the GOP won in part by making gay marriage an issue and less than two weeks after revelations about a Republican House member's advances toward teenage boys.

For Republicans, the most difficult problem posed by the e-mail exchanges that former congressman Mark Foley had with pages is not necessarily the flagrant misbehavior of one member. Rather it's the fact that the investigation is exposing a politically awkward fact of life: some GOP leaders practice a more tolerant brand of politics in their office hiring than some in the party have preached on the campaign trail.

"They play somebody different on TV than they are in person," says John Aravosis, a gay blogger who used to work for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Jeff Trandahl, the former House clerk at the center of the inquiry into the Foley e-mails and a top-ranking appointee of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, is openly gay. So is Kirk Fordham, the former Foley chief of staff who says he alerted Hastert's office last year to his boss' over-chumminess with high school pages.

The revelations have disturbed some conservative activists, who believe that Republicans owe their victories in the 2004 elections to the thousands of "values voters" who trooped to the polls to vote for anti-gay-marriage measures on the ballots of 11 swing states.

"It was the deciding factor in the presidential election," says Phil Burress. He spearheaded the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in Ohio, the state that decided the election for Bush.

"Has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members or staffers?" Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council wrote in an e-mail message to the organization's activists this week. In an interview, Perkins says that while he has not drawn any conclusions, "these are questions that need to be resolved."

Such sentiments have raised concerns that gay staffers will be pressed to leave Republican offices. "It could be another Salem," says former senator Alan Simpson, referring to colonial-era witch hunts. Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, co-founded the Republican Unity Coalition to encourage gay participation in the party.

Gay Republicans insist they shouldn't be blamed for Foley or the fallout. Patrick Sammon, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans, denounced the congressman's behavior toward pages as "despicable."

Justin Nelson, a former GOP House staffer who founded the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, says "it was gay Republican staffers and an openly gay member of Congress" who delivered early warnings about Foley's behavior.

Both Fordham and Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Congress' only openly gay Republican member, have said they passed on complaints about Foley to the House speaker and clerk offices.

While many conservatives insist their opposition to gay marriage doesn't equate to opposition to homosexuality, some remain suspicious of gays' trustworthiness. Burress says he believes that homosexual men are more prone to pedophilia than heterosexuals. "There's no question about that," he says.

The Rev. Debra Haffner, head of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing, denies that assertion. "The vast majority of child abusers are heterosexual; the vast majority of abused children are girls," she says.

Former senator John Danforth, a Missouri Republican who has just published a book called Faith and Politics, says his party's successful use of gay marriage as a campaign issue may come back to haunt it. "There are some things that aren't worth doing whether they work or not," he says.

Not all conservatives have had their faith shaken in the GOP, however.

Helen Cindrich, an abortion opponent and conservative activist who is working for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum's re-election in Pennsylvania, says her views about gays and lesbians have evolved as she has met some of them.

"What would you do if you took all those people who are homosexual out of all those offices?" she asks. "There's probably a lot of good people who would be shunned, and that's not the way it's supposed to be." Cindrich acknowledges that not all her fellow conservatives agree with her, but she adds, "I guess I'm learning to take people where they are."

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Evangelical leader hit with gay sex claims

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals over a sex scandal, acknowledged today commiting some "indiscretions," including the purchase of methamphetamines, but denied having a three-year sexual relationship with his accuser.

Haggard, a leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage, stepped down from his post with the 30-million member association Thursday while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex.

In an interview today with KUSA-TV in Denver, Haggard again denied having sex with his accuser, but admitted buying drugs from the 49-year-old male escort, Mike Jones.

Haggard said he bought methamphetamine from Jones but added that "I threw it away" before ever using it. "I never kept it very long because it's wrong," Haggard told the TV station. "I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it."

Haggard also said he was "grateful" after KUSA reported that Jones had failed portions of a polygraph test early today that he had agreed to take to prove his accusations were true.

The station reported the irregular results were in some answers to questions about having had sex with Haggard. Jones said he was puzzled by the result and stands by his previous accusations. He told KUSA he was "physically and mentally exhausted" when he took the test and that his condition could explain the results.

Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations but also temporarily relinquished leadership of New Life Church pending an investigation.

"I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity," he said in a statement. "I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance."

Haggard told KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "I've never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."

Carolyn Haggard, spokeswoman for the 14,000-member New Life Church and the pastor's niece, said a four-member church panel will investigate the allegations. The board has the authority to discipline Haggard, including removing him from ministry work.

The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, said Haggard acknowledged some of the accusations were true.

"I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs.

Parlsey did not elaborate, but in an e-mail addressed to congregants, he wrote that the board of overseers had since met with Haggard.

"It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true. He has willingly and humbly submitted to the authority of the board of overseers, and will remain on administrative leave during the course of the investigation," the e-mail stated. A copy was obtained by KMGH-TV in Denver.

The allegations surfaced as voters in Colorado and seven other states get ready to decide Tuesday on amendments banning gay marriage. Besides the proposed ban on the Colorado ballot, a separate measure would establish the legality of domestic partnerships providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of married couples.

Church members were stunned.

"It's political, right before the elections," said Brian Boals, a New Life member for 17 years.

Church member E.J. Cox, 25, called the claims "ridiculous."

"People are always saying stuff about Pastor Ted," she said. "You just sort of blow it off. He's just like anyone else in the public eye."

The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.

"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,"' said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," he said.

Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard and that the two last had sex in August.

He said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. He declined to make the voice mails available to the AP, but KUSA-TV reported what it said were excerpts late Thursday that referred to methamphetamine.

"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."

A second message, left a few hours later, began: "Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever."

Haggard, 50, was appointed president of the evangelicals association in March 2003. He has participated in conservative Christian leaders' conference calls with White House staffers and lobbied members of Congress last year on U.S. Supreme Court appointees after Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement.

After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004, Haggard and others began organizing state-by-state opposition. Last year, Haggard and officials from the nearby Christian ministry Focus on the Family announced plans to push Colorado's gay marriage ban for the 2006 ballot.

At the time, Haggard said that he believed marriage is a union between a man and woman rooted in centuries of tradition, and that research shows it's the best family unit for children.

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