Michael Steele

The chairman of the Republican National Committee has shot down hopes by minority homosexual groups that the party will open its "big tent" to endorse "civil unions" or homosexual marriage.

"What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No." Michael Steele told radio talk show host Mike Gallagher.

The comment came just days after a homosexual organization linking itself to Republicans had contacted Steele's office to call a Christian group, the Illinois-based Americans for Truth, "terrorists" and liken them to Germany's Nazi party.

As WND reported at the time, the attack came from Jamie Ensley, president of the Georgia "Log Cabin Republicans." Ensley's comments followed a request by Americans for Truth that the GOP work to rebuild its conservative base by defending a definition of marriage limited to one man and one woman.

Ensley's message to Steele, which was publicized by Americans for Truth, urged Steele "not to allow small biggoted [sic], anti-American and anti-Christian fringe groups such as Americans for Truth to influence you."

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"Most Americans and people of medical science believe that people do not choose their sexual orientation. Groups like Americans for Truth simply want to divide Americans, and truthfully their group would be more welcome as a mainstream Nazi Germany organization, than an organization which provides any value at all in 21st Century America," Ensley's message said.

"I hope you will continue to support the Log Cabin Republicans, and not listen to the radical christian extremist domestic terrorist groups such as Americans for Truth," he wrote.

In Steele's interview with Gallagher, the focus was the reconstruction of the GOP for 2010 and other future elections.

Gallagher raised the question, "Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?"

"No, no no. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country? I mean this isn’t something that you just kind of like, 'Oh well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage,'" Steele said.

He continued, "I mean this is a foundational principle of this country. This is a foundational principle of organized society. This isn't something that in America we decided, 'Let's make it between a man and a woman, and oh, we changed our mind and make it between anyone and anyone.'"

The exchange is archived on Gallegher's website.

"So no room even for a conversation about civil unions in your mind?" Gallagher asked.

"What’s the difference?" Steele responded.

Terry Hamilton, chief of the Log Cabin Republicans, said such comments "further alienate the mainstream, moderate and independent-minded voters that left the Republican Party in the November election."

He said the GOP needs to be more "inclusive."

But Peter LaBarbera, chief of Americans for Trurth, said, "Now is the time for all Americans who believe in marriage and time-tested Biblical morality to call or write Steele to thank him for wisely not capitulating on a core moral principle in his interview with Mike Gallagher."

Steele said, like President Reagan, he wanted to work with those with differences of opinion to restore the GOP.

But he said he didn't need "to water down my values to have you be a part of my team."

"I'm here to tell you I know what our identity is," Steele said. "We're the conservative party in America."

"We believe in the right to life, the right to bear arms, to live our lives as God has ordained it, fiscal responsibility. I don't need the government to come in and redefine it for me."

WND reported earlier that the Georgia Republican Party responded to Ensley's attack on Christians with a statement the Log Cabin Republicans "are an independent group not officially associated with the Georgia Republican Party."

As such, the group does not speak for the state GOP.

"While a healthy debate on the issues can help strengthen us as a party, to use the word 'terrorist' to describe those that disagree with you is not appropriate," the party said.

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