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)