Cabin fever.

While reading Fred Kuhr's article "Growing a Gay Old Party" in your December 6 issue, I had to laugh. It seems quite amazing that the Log Cabin Republicans would choose not to endorse George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential campaign because of his objection to equality and marriage. Did they also choose not to endorse other individual candidates running for Congress at the same time who also objected?

Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Ric Keller represent me and my partner in [their respective] houses of Congress. Both had previously come out against equality and gay marriage. Unfortunately, they were elected [Martinez] and reelected [Keller] in the 2004 election. Did LCR support these members? How many other members of the Republican Party did LCR support who came out against equality?

For an organization whose very own mission statement reads, "We also believe all Americans have the right to liberty, freedom, and equality," how can they believe this when they support not only presidential candidates but also members of Congress who want to see not only the denial of our equality but our entire demise?

I would bet that when Patrick Guerriero is meeting with members of the Republican Party, he most likely gets a lot of smiles and agreements. But I would also bet when he leaves and the door is closed, there is nothing but snickering and full-out laughter from the Republican Party members he just sat with.

Was Patrick Guerriero in California when Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation protecting gay interests? Is Patrick in Massachusetts while Gov. Mitt Romney is doing everything in his power to ban gay marriages, including adding [a measure to ban gay marriages] to the ballot? How involved is Patrick with the Catholic Church during their witch hunt to find gay members and expel them? It would seem that Patrick has his work cut out for him.

Hopefully, his actions will provide results; we can only hope. But I cannot--and will not--support any member of this organization or this political party.

There is only one word that comes to my mind about being gay and a Republican--and that is hypocrite!

SCOTT GALAS Orlando, Fla.

Log Cabin Republicans are simply the Uncle Toms of heterosexual conservative Republicans. Gay Americans who are members of a political or religious group seeking to perpetuate a legal system that disenfranchises other gay American citizens are self-loathing individuals who desire nothing more than to distance themselves from their own diversified community. Living in such an arrested developmental state, they desire to be accepted and respected by the individuals who hate them the most--heterosexual conservative Republicans.

We must bring our brothers and sisters back into the flock. We must help them see how heterosexual conservative Republicans have used cultural and religious beliefs to dictate the individual acceptance, or rejection, of other citizens in our society. We must show them how accommodation, acculturation, equality, respect, and tolerance have almost disappeared from the vocabulary of the government supported by their constituents. We need to show our brothers and sisters how the pathological discourse of the religious right is about maladjustment, assimilation, inequality, disrespect, and intolerance for American citizens who live outside the traditionally extreme conservative Christian paradigm.

BRYAN FREEHLING New Hope, Pa.