Gay Today: World

Pat Buchanan & Ezola Foster: What's Their Ticket About?

Compiled By GayToday

Washington, D.C.--Pat Buchanan's return as a crusader against women, immigrants and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people--and his naming of an anti-gay running mate at last week's Reform Party Convention-- might not have much of an impact on the presidential race and the November 2000 elections.

Pat Buchanan

However, Buchanan's low standing in the polls and apparent failure to attract the support of many social conservatives away from the Republican Party does show that GLBT people have made significant cultural and political advances since Buchanan's previous presidential campaigns, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said Monday.

Attacking Democrats, Republicans, Senate candidate Hillary Clinton and GLBT people all in one soundbite, Buchanan last week told his supporters, "Rampant homosexuality, a sign of cultural decadence and moral decline from Rome to Weimar, is celebrated, as our first lady parades up Fifth Avenue to share her 'pride' in a lifestyle ruinous to body and soul alike."

At the same time, Buchanan named as his vice presidential running mate Ezola Foster, a Los Angeles schoolteacher, long-time conservative activist and member of the John Birch Society.

Foster has a well-documented history of anti-gay activism. For example, she once warned that the Republican Party in California would be known as the "party of the perverts" unless it voted to reject the charters of such groups as the Log Cabin Club of Orange County.

Foster also founded Black Americans for Family Values, a group that opposed references to homosexuality in public schools and use of public money to promote life-saving safe-sex programs aimed at fighting HIV and AIDS. And she campaigned in favor of Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot measure that sought to deny most forms of state aid to illegal immigrants. The ballot measure was approved by voters but invalidated by the courts.

"Mired in fourth place in the polls, it might be tempting to conclude that the days of 'rampant Buchananism' are over, but the threat to our community remains real," said NGLTF Executive Director Elizabeth Toledo.

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Pat Buchanan for President

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"While the politics of prejudice is losing steam across the nation, those who would deny us our civil liberties nonetheless have managed to place on state ballots a record number of anti-GLBT initiatives. The more gains we make culturally and politically, the more attacks we face. And the more marginalized Buchanan becomes as a candidate, the more strident we can expect his rhetoric to be."

Toledo added that Buchanan's candidacy poses a conundrum for social conservatives: will they stick with a Republican Party that at its recent convention tried, with mixed results, to move towards acceptance of homosexuality? Or will they be tempted by Buchanan's hostile stances on issues like reproductive rights and GLBT people?

"If Republicans of all stripes reject Buchanan's homophobia and bigotry, we may witness the disappearance of Pat Buchanan from the political landscape," Toledo said.

"On the other hand, if enough social conservatives abandon the Republican Party, it could affect the party's ability to turn out its base this November. Either way, with the Buchanan candidacy we are on our guard."