Scott Walker’s gay dilemma

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(14 votes, average 4.29 out of 5)

Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff writer
Oct 6, 2010

Despite his anti-gay stance on the campaign trail, GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker has a history of hiring and promoting gay staffers. Open and closeted gays have held key positions on his political campaigns, in his Assembly office (when he represented Wauwatosa in the Legislature) and within his administration as Milwaukee County Executive.

The most prominent openly gay officials currently serving under Walker are county housing administrator Tim Russell and county parks director Sue Black. Russell, who has been active with Log Cabin Republicans, previously served as Walker’s deputy chief of staff and also worked for ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson’s Milwaukee office.

Another former longtime Thompson and Walker operative asked WiG not to identify him as gay. He is likely one of the “number of openly gay, top-level (Walker) staffers” cited by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Daniel Bice in a May 9 column. WiG does not out people unless they are actively campaigning against LGBT rights.

Milwaukee attorney Jim McFarland, a member of Log Cabin Republicans, described Walker as “100-percent supportive on a personal level.” McFarland and other gay Walker supporters believe his personal openness signals that, if elected, he would not pursue the conservative social positions he’s adopted on the stump.

In addition to promising to rescind the state’s domestic partner registry and eliminate employment benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian state workers, Walker has aligned himself politically with opponents of stem cell research, contraception and even the state’s public smoking ban.

“I and most of the Log Cabin Republicans don’t consider him anti-gay,” McFarland said. “He may have taken positions that are bad on marriage and domestic partnership, but he doesn’t make it a priority. His priority is on the economic issues, and that’s primarily why I support him.”

Madison Realtor Darren Kittleson said he and other Log Cabin Republicans were always welcome in Walker’s office when he served in the Assembly.

“He was always open to letting us sit down and discuss our point of view,” Kittleson said.  “A place at the table is important, regardless. He’s always had an open door at least to listen to us. And that’s why I’m not concerned about some of this stuff (he’s said). I believe his positions can correct what is going on in the economy.”

Jamie Taylor, an openly gay conservative Libertarian, said Walker’s positions on LGBT issues simply don’t matter to him. “I believe in the times we are in, there are more important things,” he said, citing government spending.

Walker’s gay supporters also complain that Democrats reach out to the LGBT community at election time, only to forget them after inauguration day.

“We haven’t moved forward in some of the ways that we should have under Democratic control,” Kittelson said. “How did Iowa approve same-sex marriage before Wisconsin? If there was an opportunity, it should have been in the last four years. Neither side has done anything stellar.”

Although gay Republicans are troubled by their party’s anti-gay rhetoric, they said they feel more discriminated against by the LGBT community. “Gays seem more anti-Republican than Republicans seem to be anti-gay,” McFarland said.

‘Big gay problem’

Despite their optimism about Walker, his gay supporters acknowledge that elected officials who are close to LGBT people on a personal level often take political actions against them. The highest-profile example is the relationship between former President George W. Bush and Ken Mehlman, who served as campaign manager for Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007.

When Mehlman came out in an interview with the The Atlantic magazine in August, he insisted that Bush “is no homophobe” but admitted the former president exploited anti-gay initiatives for political gain. Mehlman claimed to have lobbied unsuccessfully behind the scenes to discourage the tactic, and he expressed regret that he hadn’t worked harder within his party to expand its outreach to the gay community.

Mehlman’s coming-out was warmly embraced by Bush and other GOP officials but it stirred anger among evangelical right leaders who were instrumental to Bush’s political success. The conservative Washington Times reported that the uproar over Mehlman threatened to derail a backroom deal Republican leaders had made to silence evangelicals on social issues during the mid-term election so the GOP could focus on the economy.

Peter LaBarbera, founder and president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, was furious with the party’s response to Mehlman. Writing about the Republican’s “big and growing ‘gay’ problem,” LaBarbera lambasted RNC Chairman Michael Steele for embracing Mehlman’s sexual orientation. Steele had responded to Mehlman’s coming out by saying that the “announcement, often a very difficult decision which is only compounded when done on the public stage, reaffirms for me why we are friends and why I respect him personally and professionally.”

“Why couldn’t Mr. Steele just have kept quiet about this tragic revelation by which another sexually confused man seeks to rationalize his misbehavior (sin) by declaring homosexuality part of his inherent being?” LaBarbera wrote. “Nope, instead, like a three-year-old boy approaching a puddle, Steele just had to step in it.”

Wisconsin’s Christian right organizations declined to comment on Walker’s relationships with gays. Wisconsin Family Action president Julaine Appling, WCVY’s Vic Eliason and Matt Sande of Pro-Life Wisconsin refused to return WiG’s phone calls and e-mails on the subject. All three have backed Walker’s gubernatorial bid.

In one way, these religious right leaders are in the same position as Walker’s Log Cabin backers: They are both supporting the Walker they know, and that’s a somewhat different Walker from the one the other knows.

Democratic leaders said that Walker’s incongruence is troubling – another example of their claim that he “will do or say whatever it takes to get elected,” as when Walker recently ran concurrent conflicting commercials, one of them attacking Democratic opponent Tom Barrett for being an extreme environmental radical, while the other branded him as a dangerous polluter.

Openly gay state Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said Walker’s personal openness toward gays is encouraging but it’s not enough. He described Walker as being at “step one” when it comes to LGBT tolerance.

“Scott’s willing to have gay staff work in his office and use their talents, but the next courageous step would be for him to let people in his party and his supporters know that discrimination isn’t right,” Carpenter said. “I don’t think he’s ready to come out publicly and say something like that. I don’t think he’s willing to suffer the consequences from his coalition and base. If push came to shove, Scott Walker would vote us off the island.”

But “time is on our side,” Carpenter added. “It’s just taking Republicans a lot longer than Democrats to really understand and promote public policy that is for civil rights and equality.”