ShareThisWASHINGTON - Staunch social conservative Sen. John Cornyn said he's accepted an invitation to appear at a gay and lesbian group's fundraiser in September to seek common ground.
The junior Texas senator, who is in charge of getting Republicans elected to the Senate, has voted against same-sex marriage and opposed a recent push to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibiting known gays and lesbians from serving.
But Sept. 22, he plans to drop by the Log Cabin Republicans Political Action Committee reception before the national group's 2010 dinner in Washington.
"Some things we won't agree on," said Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "But I think it's always better to talk and then try find those things we can agree on rather than just assume there's no common ground whatsoever."
The Log Cabin Republicans began in the late 1970s in California, executive director R. Clarke Cooper said. Gay and lesbian Republicans who helped former President Ronald Reagan get elected as governor there successfully appealed to him to speak out against state legislation to oust gay and lesbian teachers from public classrooms.
Today, the gay political group has about 19,600 members in its national arm, and about 30,000 members in state and local chapters, Cooper said.
Cornyn said same-sex marriage is "absolutely" one of those things he and group members don't agree on, but he's happy to talk to them.
"I don't want people to misunderstand and think that I don't respect the dignity of every human being regardless of sexual orientation," Cornyn said, adding that attending the fundraising event was something he thought he should do.
In late May, Cornyn called for lawmakers to wait to consider repealing "don't ask, don't tell" until military leaders know more about how lifting the ban would affect the armed forces.
The gay GOP group is leading a legal fight against the ban.
But Cooper said his organization hopes to usher in an era of reconciliation between gay and lesbian Republicans and other GOP members.
The group has captured the attention of the NRSC, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the fundraising arm for House Republicans, Cooper said.
Republicans got their teeth "kicked in" in the 2008 elections, bringing about some realizations among top GOP officials, Cooper said.
They've seen that while wedge issues associated with gays and lesbians might have yielded some small victories, the GOP and some candidates have seen a diminishing return, Cooper said.
"So our role within the party is to help educate current elected leaders ... and also educate candidates as to how they can be still true to themselves as far as issues, as far as core conservative, back-to-basics issues without using the gay and lesbian community as a target," he said.
Robert Schlein, president of the Dallas chapter of the Log Cabin group, said Cornyn and Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions, NRCC chairman, are in a party building mode.
"They understand the importance of reaching out and adding to the Republican ranks," Schlein said, adding that Sessions has attended the Dallas group's meetings.
Republicans aren't going to agree on all the issues, but they can agree on core conservative beliefs such as fiscal responsibility, national security, liberty, less regulation in business and the anti-President Barack Obama agenda, he said.
"I, as a Republican, do not want to trade the hope for gay rights for the destruction that's happening right now in our economic system," Schlein said.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri said 100 percent of Republicans don't have to agree with each other 100 percent of the time.
The Texas party's platform posted online includes a provision on homosexuality that reads, in part, "We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases."
Even so, Munisteri said, "My role as chairman is to recognize that the delegates pick a platform, to recognize not everybody agrees with every particular plank or word, and move forward and work on elections," he said.
Munisteri said he's a pro-life social conservative in favor of marriage only between a man and a woman.
Would Munisteri appear at a meeting of the Dallas Chapter of the LCR if he were invited?
"I don't deal with hypotheticals," he said. "I'll deal with that when it happens."
(E-mail reporter Trish Choate at choatet(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
