Republican Party Platform and Gays

In this crucial election year, I am compelled to offer a few comments about my life and about the presidential election.

I have been a professional Republican most of my adult life, beginning as chair of the Sacramento County Teen-Age Republicans in 1960 to serving in the Deukmejian Administration as director of the California Arts Council. The years that I served in the Deukmejian Administration were watershed years for me. I am grateful to former Gov. George Deukmejian for giving me the opportunity to serve the people of California and for opening up my life to the arts.

I had the opportunity during those years to see the arts as a career. More importantly for me, I saw that gay people were living and working openly in the arts. During the last year in my position at the Arts Council, I accepted my sexual orientation as a gay man. Because of that my wife Nancy and I divorced after 16 years of marriage. Nancy is now, as always, my best friend and supporter. It’s a shame the Republican Party is not. I know my sexual orientation is not welcome in the Republican Party of George Bush, Dan Quayle, Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan. The Republican Party no longer addresses the issues I care about. As we saw in Houston, issues of a woman’s right to choose; care for our global environment; a national campaign to fight AIDS; national health care; public funding for the arts; freedom of expression and gay rights were not part of the platform. I can see no reason for a gay person to be a Republican or to vote for Bush.

ROBERT H. REID

Sacramento