Log Cabin fever - dissension within US' largest organization of gay and lesbian Republicans

The first resignation came at the Log Cabin Republicans' national convention in August. By January two more members had left the group's board of directors. All three men offer similar reasons for their departure--in their view Log Cabin, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian Republicans, is off track.

"My biggest fear is that the organization is going to self-destruct," says Jim Gardner, an executive with a California-based medical manufacturer. Gardner, who lives in Washington, D.C., called it quits at Log Cabin's San Diego convention, held in conjunction with the Republican National Convention in the same city.

At the same time Gardner decided he'd had enough, Carl E. Schmid II was just joining the board. Schmid, a government affairs consultant who at the time was president of the Washington chapter of Log Cabin, stayed five months before he resigned. "Others before me have sought to raise the same concerns that I share but have been met with stubborn opposition," Schmid wrote in his January 8 letter of resignation, obtained by The Advocate. "While some may claim victory in squelching dissent, only time will tell as to Log Cabin's fate if some changes are not made soon."

The criticism comes at a crucial time for a relatively young organization. Last year Log Cabin made headlines when it endorsed GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole--even though the Dole campaign had returned a $1,000 contribution in 1995. Now Log Cabin is trying to influence the Republican Party toward a path of social moderation. Yet Congress's Republican leadership is firmly in the hands of conservatives. The Republican National Committee has stepped further to the right with its choice of a new chairman, Jim Nicholson of Colorado.

Meanwhile, Log Cabin continues to search for ways to distinguish itself from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization, which Log Cabin members see as a Democratic support group although it is officially bipartisan. HRC, which says it has 175,000 members nationwide, contributed $1.1 million to help candidates, political action committees, and political parties for the two years leading up to the 1996 election. Of that amount, approximately $71,500 went to Republicans. Log Cabin claims 11,025 members and accounts for $76,002 in Republican contributions for the same time period.

Like the other two departed board members, Gardner proclaims that he wants nothing more than for Log Cabin to succeed. After all, there's no place else in the gay movement for an economic conservative and social moderate to go.

But in the eyes of several of Log Cabin's internal critics, the organization's structure hinders success. Some have also criticized its executive director, Richard Tafel. Sam Collins tendered his resignation after Log Cabin's postelection board meeting in Washington last November. When first contacted by The Advocate, Collins, a coffee retailer in Cincinnati who has been active with Log Cabin for five years, kept his, criticisms focused on the group's overall direction, citing "a difference of priorities."

Later, however, Collins felt compelled to criticize Tafel specifically, explaining that he-felt Tafel had put him on an "enemies list" for making his concerns public. "I feel that Rich has worked hard to establish ... that the job of the membership and the board is to line up 100% behind him and support him privately and publicly," Collins complains. "The clubs are there to raise as much money as possible to support the Rich Tafel agenda." Of Tafel's alleged suppression of dissent, he adds, "It's shades of the Nixon White House. Rich is just paranoid."

Log Cabin's board directed Tafel not to comment for this story. "Rich is in no trouble with this board," says Robert Kabel, the board's chairman and a Washington, D.C., lawyer. Other board members also fall squarely in Tafel's camp. "He's been an excellent leader through some really rocky times," says Robert Stears, a New Jersey lobbyist who is also the board's treasurer. Strong leaders are bound to upset people along the way, says Stears: "I'd be fearful of an executive director whom no one knew, whom no one liked or disliked, because then I would ask, `What's going on?'"

Cheryl Eagleson, a trust officer in Cincinnati, joined the board last year and quickly left, but only because she realized the position would have required too much time. "I believe Rich does a good job," she says.

More than anyone else in the country, Tafel has become synonymous with the image of a gay Republican. An all-American-looking white man in his mid 30s with short dark hair, he is normally seen wearing a conservative blue suit. Tafel has been profiled in numerous magazine and newspaper stories as the face to go along with the story on gay conservatism. (He was one of three Log Cabin members on a cover of The Advocate last year.)

There's a good reason for his exposure: Tafel was instrumental in turning Log Cabin into a truly national organization. The group got its start in 1978 in California. It was Tafel's idea in 1995 to take what had been two entities--one a federation of local clubs around the country, the other a Washington-based lobbying arm for those clubs--and merge them under one board of directors with him as executive director.

Today's infighting can be traced to that merger. Gardner and Collins believe the board is too concerned with its place in Washington and not interested enough in building the organization's grass roots. They say the board should be a more forceful voice in setting policy, not just raising money. In addition, they contend that the board is not keeping tabs on Tafel, who himself is a sitting member. "It's a paper board--it's useless," Gardner says. Collins believes Tafel is not looking ahead: "Rich has done a lot of good for the organization, but I think he would be better served by focusing more on the long range."

"This is a working board," Kabel says in disagreement. "We're in a building mode at all levels in the organization." Kabel attributes the opinions of Gardner, Collins, and Schmid to personality conflicts and says the men were stretched too thin with other responsibilities to devote themselves fully to Log Cabin.

Finally, dissenters within the organization suggest Log Cabin is having money problems. Although Kabel and other officials refused to discuss specifics, they maintain Log Cabin is healthy. Sources put Log Cabin's budget last year at $400,000 but add that the gift of one major donor is expiring. Steven Haden, a public relations consultant hired by Log Cabin (he is also a member of the group), says the organization's budget increased 50% from 1995 to 1996. Membership is also up, Haden says, and Log Cabin hopes to grow to 15,000 by the end of 1997.

Some see nothing fatal in the disagreements within Log Cabin. "Some of this is just a matter of evolution," says Steve Gunderson, the openly gay Republican former House member from Wisconsin. "It's inevitable that an organization that grows as quickly as they have will have some tensions."

David Greer, who was Log Cabin's director of public affairs until last November, when he left to pursue other opportunities, agrees that "growing pains" are causing much of the problem. But he says Log Cabin's leaders should take a look at where they're going: "We're not going to win those battles in stemming the conservative shift of the party until we take a long, hard look at ourselves and figure out who we are."

COPYRIGHT 1997 Liberation Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group