Log Cabin Selects Outspoken New Leader

Log Cabin Republicans have ended their search for a new executive director by announcing today that its interim pick will take over permanently.

Gregory T. Angelo had led the group since the departure of R. Clarke Cooper following the election. And the board of directors opted to keep the man who has helmed the group through one of its biggest recent controversies — opposing Chuck Hagel as nominee for Defense Secretary.

Log Cabin got a lot of early attention for calling out Hagel's previous antigay statements, when he said during the '90s that James Hormel was too "aggressively gay" to be an ambassador to Luxembourg during the Clinton administration. Log Cabin bought full-page newspaper ads in the Washington Post and in The New York Times.

In his short time as interim leader, Angelo also found himself confronting Rush Limbaugh for making a "ridiculous" comparison of gay people to pedophiles. "Rushbo, you're better than that," Angelo said in January. "There is absolutely no connection between gay marriage and pedophilia, and to insinuate that there is any connection is insulting to loving, committed, adult couples who want nothing more than to live their lives in dignity with the rights and protections afforded to their straight counterparts."

Angelo comes to the national stage having been chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of New York State, where his group joined a coalition that successfully fought for marriage equality. After marriage equality passed, Angelo said it was an indication that LGBT voters should realize they need to support Republicans — who cast the few deciding votes in the state Senate — if they want to win marriage equality. “More and more gay people are waking up to the reality that if we truly want equal rights for all, we need to support fair-minded Republicans," he said in June 2012.

In an op-ed written for The Advocate in January, Angelo was optimistic that his party is changing. "We’re poised to ride a massive wave of equality," he wrote, "as more and more Republicans understand that embracing civil marriage for gay couples is a winning issue."

Read the entire guest editorial from Angelo.