New York Activists Say Giuliani Has Retreated on Gay Issues

Asked about the charge of backpedaling, Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the Giuliani campaign, addressed only the civil unions issue in an e-mail: "Mayor Giuliani has consistently supported the rights and benefits as afforded by domestic partnerships, while opposing gay marriage."

Some of Giuliani's gay supporters -- including members of the group Log Cabin Republicans -- point to his Web site, where at the end of the "On the Issues" page it says that Giuliani "believes in equal rights under law for all Americans."

Exit polls in 2004 showed that 4 percent of voters were openly gay and 77 percent voted for Democrats. According to a recent study by the San Francisco-based Community Marketing Inc., voter turnout among gay men is twice that of the nation's voters as a whole. (Lesbians turn out a little less often than gay men.)

But overtly seeking out gay voters may have negative consequences for a politician. A poll by Quinnipiac University, released the day before the presidential forum on gay issues, found that more than a third of voters in the battleground state of Ohio view the endorsement of a gay rights group as a negative.

As mayor of liberal New York, Giuliani had to garner the support of various communities, GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said, but on the national stage, a Republican presidential candidate has to attract social conservatives, many of whom are less likely to support gay rights.

Said Fabrizio: "Outside New York, the rest of America has this image of Giuliani as a tough, no-nonsense guy who cleaned up Times Square, closed sex clubs. And that Giuliani doesn't sound like the Giuliani who's pro-choice, pro-gay rights, et cetera. Until Republican primary voters are given information that counters the image they have of Giuliani, many of them will assume that he is who he says he is."

All the Democratic presidential candidates are on the record as supporting gay rights issues such as nondiscrimination laws, hate crimes bills, partner immigration rights and repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The leading Democratic contenders, Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.), support civil unions, though like their Republican counterparts, they oppose gay marriage.

On the Republican side, no candidate has campaigned in support of gay rights.

Aside from a YouTube channel, "Gays for Giuliani" is nothing more than a YouTube video, despite rumors in the blogosphere that Republicans and Democrats are behind it. But Davis is thinking about starting a political action committee to raise money to buy a television spot in South Carolina, a key primary state where some bloggers have complained that he is "gay-baiting" and "using Republicans' fear of gays to undermine Giuliani's candidacy."

Said Davis: "A few years ago, when Giuliani was running to get reelected as mayor of New York, he would have liked to use a video like this. He would have run it and said, 'Look, gay people support me!' "