Guerriero and company. (reader forum).

Do gay conservatives like Patrick Guerriero honestly believe gay civil rights are "largely a matter of semantics.... Whether you call it marriage or civil union or domestic partnership ... [we] should be given the same rights and responsibilities as all other families" [The New Face of Gay Conservatives," April 16]? The same could have been said about the "separate but equal" policy of the segregationists toward blacks during the early and mid 20th century. What the gay civil rights movement--in fact, almost the whole gay community--has failed to see, let alone get across to the straight community, is that this makes us second-class citizens. The United States has even inculcated our second-class citizenship into law. What do you think the Defense of Marriage Act is? We are not allowed to legally marry the person we love, nor can we legally serve openly in our country's military. In most jurisdictions we can even be legally fired from our jobs or thrown out of our apartments. If that isn't second-class citizenship, I don't know what is!

I wish gay conservatives all the luck in the world, but they need to recognize how warped a perception of civil rights the straight community really has.

Mark Corbin, Galion, Ohio 

I'd be curious to see how Patrick Guerriero feels about the umbrella of inclusivity he envisions for the Republican Party now that the political picture has completely changed. The Republican gubernatorial choice is no longer Jane Swift but Mitt Romney: a white, straight, male, Mormon, pro-life conservative. No surprise that Guerriero had to drop out of the race and was replaced by a more "acceptable" candidate. So much for the "big tent."

Brett Johnson, North Reading, Mass.

We need LGBT people working within both major political parties. Even if you are an independent or support a third political party, you still want to be involved with the two major political parties, because that is where the political power is in this nation. We also need LGBT people working across the political ideology road map. The individual candidate, not the party, decides to nm for office and to be more liberal or conservative, centrist or libertarian, depending on personal judgment and where they are running for office.

Edward T.J. Brown, via the Internet

Guerriero states that his party has "on occasion veered from its Abraham Lincoln roots." I'll say it has. The party of Buchanan, Quayle, Robertson, and Falwell does not consider me a full and equal citizen, but perhaps I should overlook that small detail on the chance I might benefit from hefty corporate tax breaks and deregulation.

I do not expect nor wish for our entire community to speak with one voice. No group in this country does. But my commonsense vote goes to the woman or man who understands first that I am a full and equal citizen. That tends to not be a conservative candidate. Minor reductions in taxes mean nothing if we still have to jump through hoops to be recognized.

James Corbin, Grand Rapids, Mich.

I'm disturbed by a publication that presents a bunch of right-wing zealots as examples of gay sensibility. One Roy Cohn was enough!

Bill Scollon, New Rochelle, N. Y.

You cannot change the Republican Party from within. A handful of not-so-liberal "liberal" Republicans from the Northeast cannot overcome the Republican platform and the entire Republican establishment. So tell the baby-faced politicians in the dark suits and ties to give it up. Go back to Yale and your "good old boy" clubs. Who knows--maybe George will invite you to tea at the White House.

Alfred Contreras, West Orange, N.J.