Concerns Over Gay Issues Challenge GOP

It is often labeled an open secret on Capitol Hill that even Republican officeholders who are the most hostile to gay rights in public have gay staffers and are much more tolerant of gays in private than their public personas might imply.

In the executive branch of the federal government, the President Bush White House won a second term partly by campaigning against gay marriage.

"Our society is better off when marriage is defined as between a man and a woman," Bush said in August 2004 at a campaign stop in New Mexico.

But while the president has openly admonished gay marriage, others in the administration have seemed perfectly accepting of such unions.

This week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swore in AIDS czar Dr. Mark Dybul, who is openly gay. His partner, Jason Claire, held the Bible.