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Raging against Kolbe

Representative Jim Kolbe's town hall meeting yesterday was filled with OUTrage.

At least six members of the community-based gay rights group attended the meeting in the Rincon Room and quizzed the openly gay Republican about his stance on gay rights. Kolbe did the best he could to brush off their questions.

Keith Gawronski, 24, stood up and asked, "I'm requesting you to please introduce legislation at the federal level to guarantee the rights of same sex couples."

Kolbe gave a carefully crafted response. "These rights should be protected. But it's easier to say it than to do it legally."

Gawronski asked him again, "Would you introduce the legislation?"

"We have a ways to go before we do it at the federal level," Kolbe rambled. "There is a growing acceptance. We'll take it a step at a time, we're headed in that direction."

Kolbe danced around the issue like a politician vying for reelection.

His town hall meeting at the UA yesterday proved that lately Republicans are willing to "recognize" issues surrounding gay rights, but will do absolutely nothing to further them.

Gawronski, an anthropology student and a member of OUTrage, was visibly disappointed with Kolbe's response.

"He didn't really answer, I asked him a yes or no question," he said. "I asked him to take a stand."

His friend, Jessica Weinberg, asked a question but was also snubbed out of an answer.

"His answer was pretty weak, but it was not unexpected," said Weinberg, an anthropology and linguistics graduate student. "Kolbe needs to do the responsible thing and take a leading role in this at the federal level."

Gay constituents have gotten used to Kolbe refusing to be a leader in furthering gay rights. The eight-term veteran of the House sits on the appropriations committee and chairs other subcommittees. As his power within the party continues to grow, his willingness to do anything to further gay rights will continue to diminish.

"I wouldn't say he's a leader for the gay community, though I admit that's not what he was elected to do," Gawronski said. "But he needs to take responsibility for his beliefs. As a gay person, voting against the defensive marriage act? Most would consider that hypocrisy."

Kolbe voted against the act before he came out of the closet and said that his beliefs on the issue have since changed.

"But he's an individual, he can make choices based on his beliefs," Gawronski said. "He was reelected for who he is."

But Kolbe is also a Republican. Being a powerful gay member of a party who do not believe in granting gays basic rights makes it virtually impossible for him to take a stand on the issue, a reality which must be frustrating to his gay constituents who fight so hard for their cause.

Gawronski came out of the closet when he was in high school. He became active in the issues after an army recruitment officer visited his high school and mourned the loss of three soldiers who were expelled- for murdering a gay soldier.

"It sent chills down my spine," Gawronski said. "That was my first experience with institutionalized homophobia."

If he plans to continue pressuring Kolbe and his party, it won't be his last. "Institutionalized homphobia" is an accurate label for most of the GOP. All the party's leaders agree to do is "recognize" the issue.

And Kolbe won't introduce the legislation that Gawronski asked for because he can't. The political costs are too high. It isn't in his best political interest to do the right thing.

But it is in the party's best interest to pretend like it cares. Republicans have been coloring themselves as a "big-tent" party and recently sent out their boy wonder, George W. Bush, to speak to a group of gay Republicans. Bush recognized that the experience made him feel like "a better person."

There is plenty of recognition, and nothing else.

Greg Adler, a fellow member of OUTrage, admits his group's effort at the town meeting was small, but it was an effort nonetheless.

"What was done today was for a greater good," said Adler, a theater arts sophomore. "But it did nothing except contribute to a thirty-year struggle for gay rights."

As Kolbe filed out of the Rincon room, he stopped to shake hands with the students from OUTrage.

Adler stood and firmly shook the Congressman's hand.

"Thank you for your recognition, sir," he said.

After all, recognition is all Kolbe is capable of giving.