New York GOP
votes to give Log Cabin seat on executive committee

Over the objections of one of its more conservative leaders, New York's Republican State Committee has voted to give a seat on its executive committee to a group that represents gay GOP members. The vote to give the Log Cabin Republicans representation on the executive committee came Monday at a closed-door meeting of the state GOP leadership and over the objections of state senator Serphin Maltese, the Queens GOP chairman. "I felt a group should not be recognized strictly on sexual orientation," Maltese said Thursday in an interview with the Associated Press. Maltese, a former state chairman of the politically influential Conservative Party, also noted the Log Cabin Republicans' criticism during the 2004 election campaign of President Bush's opposition to same-sex marriage. "They've been disloyal, and I don't think the group belongs in the leadership," Maltese told The New York Times, which first reported on the dispute in its Thursday editions. Declaring that "I am not antigay" and that "I don't want to be a divisive force," Maltese told the AP that he simply felt it was wrong to remain silent in the face of the proposal from state GOP chairman Stephen Minarik. But a supporter of the change, Manhattan GOP chairman James Ortenzio, said Maltese was hurting efforts to promote a "big tent" Republican Party. "Whether it's a log cabin, a yurt, an igloo, or a split-level, we've got room for every kind of housing no matter how you depict yourself in terms of your belief," Ortenzio said. "He certainly turned himself in one minute from the Maltese Falcon to some form of domestic poultry," the Manhattan party leader added. Maltese said he had no problem with gays being in leadership positions in the party but felt it was wrong to give the Log Cabin Republicans special treatment. Minarik said Wednesday that "in the Republican Party we are allowed to have diversity of opinion. While I may agree with Serph Maltese on many of the issues, particularly with regard to the Log Cabin Republican group, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to sit at our table and be part of our party." "Inclusion won, and inclusion won handily. I'm happy about that," Minarik said of the committee's voice vote to expand the executive committee membership. Republican governor George Pataki, who hand-picked Minarik to run the state party, has been an advocate for gay rights and has sought to have the party reach out to gays. It was at Pataki's urging that the GOP-led state senate approved legislation in late 2002 prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, a measure that was opposed by Maltese and 22 other Republicans in the 62-member senate. State senate majority leader Joseph Bruno and eight other GOP senators voted for the bill. Pataki's success in getting Bruno to agree to support the measure was a key factor in Pataki's winning the endorsement of the state's major gay rights group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, during his successful campaign for reelection in 2002. The endorsement came as a blow to Democratic challenger H. Carl McCall. Before Monday's vote, the state party's executive committee had included the state's 62 county GOP chairmen and a handful of state party officers. (AP)