Revival of hatred.

• Position: Republicans critical of homosexuality - Brief Article

Intolerance is back in style. During the months of May and June, rightwing Republicans struggled to outdo each other in their denunciations of homosexuality.

In Texas, the state Republican Party refused to let the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative gay group, have an information booth in the convention hall. Robert Black, spokesman for the state party, compared the Log Cabin Republicans to the Ku Klux Klan.

Wild comparisons also came from more senior officials. "Others have a sex addiction or are kleptomaniacs," said Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott, Republican from Mississippi. "There are all kinds of problems and addictions and difficulties and experiences of this kind that are wrong." House Majority Leader Dick Armey took Lott's side, saying, "The Bible is very clear on this." So did Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma, who called homosexuality "immoral behavior."

"You're right in the middle of some serious hurricane, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you," Pat Robertson, chairman of the Christian Coalition and a 1988 Republican Presidential candidate, warned the city of Orlando, which displayed rainbow banners during gay pride month. Robertson predicted that a meteor might strike Florida, and when the June wildfires erupted, he claimed vindication.

Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, appeared at a gathering of Republican Presidential hopefuls with Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers, who three months ago told the Wisconsin state assembly that homosexuality is "one of the biggest sins" in the Bible.

"I stood with Reggie White. No to same-sex marriages No to saying that way of life is acceptable!" Bauer proclaimed. The audience answered him with cheers.

"The far right has really put it to the Republican leadership that they had better toe the line," says Rebecca Isaacs, political director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "And some of the leaders are responding, Clearly, the gay and lesbian community is still the community you can blatantly attack and then hide behind the Bible. They are participating in a hate campaign."

Much of the energy for this most recent revival of hatred is coming from Bauer and James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. Not only is Dobson busy prodding the politicians, he is also rousing the estimated four million who receive his monthly mailings.

The group's June newsletter comes in an envelope marked, The Christian Response to the Homosexual...