Fun with Dick and George.

In the week leading up to their national convention, Republicans were sending mixed signals about the party's stand on equality for gays and lesbians. During a campaign speech in Iowa on August 24, Vice President Dick Cheney, noting that his daughter Mary is a lesbian, spoke supportively about gay relationships, saying, "People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to." One day later, Republican delegates in New York approved language for the party platform that not only called for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage but opposed any type of legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples.

Cheney's statement was not only remarkable for its opposition to President Bush and the delegates, it was powerful and deeply personal, said Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the gay group Log Cabin Republicans. "It exposes the great cultural divide within the Republican Party," Guerriero said.

Immediately prior to adopting the antigay language, the platform committee rejected a "unity plank" proposed by Log Cabin and two other Republican groups that sought to add moderate language about abortion and gay rights, opting instead to simply state that Republicans "respect and accept" dissenting views.

The rejection was particularly insulting, said Log Cabin's Christopher Barron, given the lineup of mostly pro-gay, moderate Republicans at the convention. "You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform and then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time," he said.