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Two GOP Leaders Differ About Gay Marriage by Steve Weinstein
EDGE Editor-In-ChiefMonday Apr 20, 2009 The Republican Party has been doing much soul searching since its searing losses in the 2008 election. Among the issues very much on the table is gay marriage. Some maintain that the party has to be true to its core base of religious conservatives, while others fear the party is losing touch with younger voters.
Several leaders, both past and present, have entered the fray. Now two of the most prominent mid-Atlantic leaders have voiced very different views. As is usual with politicians, there may be reasons under the surface.
Both Christine Todd Whitman, the patrician ex-governor of New Jersey and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush; and Rudy Giuliani the scrappy ex-federal prosecutor who, as mayor of New York, became famous for leading the city through the horrors of the Twin Towers collapse, are are often referred to as "Rockefeller Republicans"--that is, well-educated, usually well-born (although not in Giuliani’s case), liberal and based in the Northeast.
The two have long been cordial. But now they’re breaking ranks over gay marriage.
Whitman told the national gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans over the weekend that the longstanding GOP issues plank mandating civil marriage as only between a man and woman should be scrapped.
Whitman echoed the argument of marriage-equality advocates that the government should have no say in this, and that that religious "carve outs" in marriage laws, which allow a clergyman leeway to perform or not gay marriages, was sufficient.
"I’m somebody who believes in the separation of church and state and that the government, frankly, ought to be out of the business of marriage entirely," Whitman said to CNS News. "It ought to be everybody - heterosexual, homosexual. When you go down and register to get married, that’s when the legal transfer of everything occurs and that’s a legal recognition of a relationship--and if you want to get married in a church, a temple, whatever, and you find one, great!"
Instead, she advocates civil marriage as a separate category. Nor does she see gay marriage as a threat to the institution of marriage. It’s "not going to threaten my marriage," she said. "I mean, my 35th anniversary is on Monday. It’s not going to threaten my marriage to have a gay couple married."
Giuliani, on the other hand, told the New York Post he would fight New York Gov. David Paterson’s recent push for gay marriage. He predicted that this would spark a "grass-roots movement."
Most telling, he said he would use the issue if (at this point, it seems a matter more of "when") he challenges Paterson for re-election next year. "I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year because Republicans are either in favor of the position I’m in favor of, civil unions, or in many cases Republicans don’t even favor civil unions," he continued.
Giuliani has come out in favor of civil unions in the past.
The ex-mayor may have some explaining to do about his position. For one thing, a new poll from the respected Siena Research Institute shows that a clear majority of New Yorkers favor gay marriage, by an astounding 53-39 percent.
He’s also going to face some press scrutiny--and possible ridicule--for having his best friend, Howard Koeppel, announce that he and his long-term partner, Mark Hsaio, are going next door to Connecticut to get hitched. Koeppel told the New York Post that he doesn’t mind his buddy’s position.
"Rudy doesn’t discriminate. I should know. I lived with him for six months," Koeppel said. "He isn’t an advocate for gay marriage because of his religious beliefs. He is a traditional Catholic. Those teachings say marriage should be between a man and a woman."
As the Post points out, Giuliani supports abortion rights--much more of a crucial issue to practicing Catholics.
Koeppel, who is a prominent car dealer in New York City, made it into the headlines when he and Hsaio gave shelter to the mayor after he moved out of the mayor’s official residence. The mayor was breaking up with his second wife, TV newspersons Donna Hanover, and was having an affair with Wife No. 3-to-be, Judith Nathan.
EDGE Editor-in-Chief Steve Weinstein has been a regular correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, the Advocate, the Village Voice and Out. He has been covering the AIDS crisis since the early ’80s, when he began his career. He is the author of "The Q Guide to Fire Island" (Alyson, 2007).
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