Bush's betrayal: by welcoming gay and lesbian Republicans into the party, George W. Bush earned 1 million gay votes in 2000. Four years later, many of even the most faithful gay Republicans have deserted him.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, "a lot of us gay Republicans thought Bush would make gay issues [into] nonissues," says Steve May, a former Republican state representative from Arizona. "I thought Bush would put a muzzle on theocrats who didn't want part of America to be truly free. But Karl Rove [Bush's chief campaign strategist] deliberately decided that it was more important to win the 4 million evangelicals who didn't vote [in 2000] than the 1 million gays who did."

Four years ago, May was among a select group of gay and lesbian Republicans--known as the "Austin 12"--who met face-to-face with candidate Bush in Austin, Texas. Bush announced he was a "better man" for the meeting and the group helped deliver an estimated 1 million votes to the future president.

Bush promised the 12 that he would appoint gay men and lesbians to his administration, give a speaking slot to openly gay Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe at the 2000 Republican National Convention, continue President Clinton's executive order that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation for federal workers, and finally, keep the lines of communication open with them.

Bush delivered on the first three requests, including giving the job of AIDS czar to out Republican Scott Evertz. Even the Clinton administration's edict forbidding antigay discrimination in federal jobs remains in effect, despite a Bush appointee's aborted attempt earlier this year to halt enforcement of the policy.

But then the Bush administration began politically bashing gay Americans in order to shore up conservative votes. The line of communication between gay Republicans and the White House was disconnected long ago. (Spokespeople for the Bush-Cheney campaign have not responded to The Advocate's repeated requests for interviews or comment.)

After Bush's February announcement of support for an amendment to write antigay discrimination into the U.S. Constitution and a national convention this summer that underlined the party's opposition to any kind of equal rights for gay families, even gays and lesbians who have been loyal Republicans for decades deserted the president.

"What [the Administration is] doing is reprehensible," says Rebecca Maestri, the only woman among the Austin 12. "They have a responsibility to act and behave [in ways] that benefit a greater society. I fail to see that amending the Constitution of the United States does that."

"It looks to me as though gay rights has become firmly established as one of the primary dividers between blue [Democrat] and red [Republican]," says Larry Sabato, a political commentator and professor at the University of Virginia. "[It's] become one of the great polarizing issues of our times."

Still, some gay voters stand with the president. Carl Schmid, another of the Austin 12, says he is hurt by some Administration policies but believes there is hope. "I feel conflicted because I do support the party in so many of their positions," he says. "I'm still a Republican, but I obviously disagree with them on many things, including the constitutional amendment, their focus on abstinence-only [sex education and HIV prevention] programs, the nonrecognition of gay people and gay issues in the Administration. But what is a gay Republican to do? I choose to fight and to educate."

Schmid met with members of the Administration as recently as July and told them they had "lost the gay vote, and the votes of (their) friends and family." "There are those who protest and those who work on the inside," says Schmid, who didn't applaud during the speeches that bashed gays dining the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. "There are good Republicans out there," he notes, citing more moderate GOP members, such as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "I was glad they were showcased, because the right wing [of the party] gets a lot of attention."

If the debate over Bush's antigay strategies feels like dija vu, it's because gay men and lesbians faced discrimination at the hands of the previous Bush administration. While George H.W. Bush was president, initiatives to forbid any protection from antigay discrimination came to a vote in Oregon and Colorado, and the 41st president told an NBC News interviewer that he didn't consider homosexuality "normal." At the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, the elder Bush "allowed Patrick Buchanan to give his infamous "culture war" speech to a prime-time audience. Buchanan announced that he stood with the president against the "amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women."

In 2004, the second President Bush has been delivering the culture-war speech himself, albeit with more coded language, reaching out to the same religious conservatives courted by his father. A speech he has given at campaign stops in key swing states includes the statements, "We believe and s 'land for institutions like marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society. We stand for a culture of life.... We stand for judges who faithfully interpret the law, instead of legislating from the bench."

For the first time since its Washington office opened in 1993, the Log Cabin Republicans announced it would not endorse the Republican candidate for president. Christopher Barron, the group's political director, says the White House's push for the Federal Marriage Amendment, coupled with a Republican Party platform that uses "the broadest type of antigay language possible," left the organization no choice.

For gay men and lesbians, the Republican Party's so-called big tent is becoming smaller with each passing day. But the result of Karl Rove's mathematical gambit will not be known until November 2. He is betting on the idea that the increase in votes from the Christian right will surpass the lost votes from gay and moderate Republicans.

Charles Cook, editor of The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan national publication based in Washington, D.C., recently told the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard he didn't think antigay language and state ballot measures would affect overall turnout. But the same article cited a University of Akron political scientist who believed that the Republicans in Ohio could use their antigay ballot initiative and rhetoric to turn out an additional 200,000 voters who are likely to favor Bush--significant in a state where he had a narrow margin of victory in 2000.

Republican David Catania, another of the Austin 12, says such divisive tactics put the entire country at risk. "A House divided against itself will not strand, but that's exactly what this administration encourages," says Catania, an openly gay Washington, D.C., city council member. "And that's a bigger threat to the future of the country than madmen from the Middle East. It's almost laughable how much more a threat he is than terrorists."

On the record: A few notorious examples of how the Bush administration has steamrolled over gay equality

* In addition to voicing strong support for the antigay Federal Marriage Amendment--which would make same-sex marriage illegal nationwide--the president has proposed spending $1.5 billion of tax-payers' money to help straight couples maintain healthy marriages.

* The Bush administration has proposed only minor spending increases for traditional HIV/AIDS prevention in the United States but has simultaneously doubled (to $270 million) funding allocated for widely discredited abstinence-only sex education and HIV prevention programs. Information touting the effectiveness of condom use has disappeared from the AIDS prevention Web site run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Critics believe these moves promote the spread of the disease rather than its prevention.

* As the cost of drug treatment for HIV/AIDS continues to skyrocket, Bush's 2005 budget calls for only a tiny increase in funding for state-run AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. The result, health advocates predict, will be longer and longer waiting lists for those most in need of treatment, including hundreds or thousands of gay men.

* Republicans have coordinated a get-out-the-vote effort with antigay marriage initiatives on the November ballot in 11 states. Republican strategists believe that having marriage amendments on the ballots in such states as Michigan and Ohio will coax Christian conservatives to the polls, which will swell support for Bush. [See page 24.]

* The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate and House.

* In June, the Senate passed legislation that expands the federal definition of hate crimes to include antigay attacks. Lawmakers have attached the measure to a Department of Defense reauthorization bill. However, congressional lawmakers are expected to strip the hate crimes provisions from the bill before the final version is sent to the president.

* Bush has placed staunchly conservative judges on the federal bench, often by promoting them when Congress is in recess. Such appointments need no Senate confirmation and are valid until the next Congress takes office. One example: Ultraconservative, antigay Alabama attorney general William Pryor was placed on the 11th U.S. circuit court of appeals and will remain there until the end of 2005. In July, Pryor's vote was crucial in the court's refusal to review a decision that denied gay couples in Florida adoption rights.

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Wildman is The Advocate's Washington correspondent.