Spotlight on the gay right.

PERSECUTED by fellow queers and facing a fracture in their own ranks, gay Republicans can be forgiven for feeling a little defensive lately. In Gay Republicans, a fairly straightforward--and often funny--documentary by Wash Westmoreland airing Election Day at 8 P.M. Eastern and Pacific (check local listings) on Trio, gay conservatives speak their minds. The just-right-of-center folks who feel betrayed by President Bush's support of the Federal Marriage Amendment make strange bedfellows with their more hard-core comrades--including a Palm Beach hairdresser who finds Massachusetts's gay marriages "shameful" and a Liza Minnelli impersonator who attends Republican fund-raisers in drag. But their goals are mostly the same: to get Republicans elected and to keep their piece of the collective pie. For all the fascinating characters rushing across the screen, the film never digs deeper than its occasionally shocking surface. And its entertainment value for liberal gays will likely depend on how the election tally is going. So call it an embarrassment of riches--a short film with a lot to say and only an hour in which to say it.