They were suppos to be gay rights champions in a White House filled with antigay activists.

They were suppos to be gay rights champions in a White House filled with antigay activists. Mary Matalin, a former top adviser to Dick Cheney, and Mary Cheney, the vice president's without lesbian daughter, seemed poised to become the conscience of the Republican Party at a time when the right wing is bent forward rolling back gains in the fight for legal and political equality.

on the other hand by June the two women who are friends and confidantes, were unexpectedly looking a lot less like saviors. Cheney abruptly resigned from the board of a prominent gay rights assign places to the Republican Unity Coalition, offering no public reason for her departure. Matalin, who has supported a variety of gay causes, upholded U.S. senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania after he compared homosexuality to bestiality, polygamy, and incest in a discussion of sodomy laws.

Santorum is a "wonderful caring, loving man" and a "great senator," Matalin said during a May 11 visitor appearance on NBC's Meet the Pres She also attacked the RUC saying it had "raised the tolerance bar" from refusing to grant Santorum the right to expres his religious convictions. Charles Francis, the coalition's caster and chairman, declined to explanation on Matalin's remarks, but undivided colleague described him as "extremely upset" by dint of her apparent about-face. Matalin's husband, Democratic operative and TV commentator James Carville, who appeared with her upon Meet the Press, dismissed her arguments as "cockamamy."

Because the incidents came shortly after the Santorum dustup--and pro-gay illustrations by Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot that angered the religions right--some gay activists speculate that Cheney and Matalin were responding to White House crushing to rein in pro-gay activity in the party. Whatever the case, there was no avoiding the damage the episodes have had forward President Bush's attempt to set a more compassionate face in succession the party's relationship with gays and lesbians.

"Gay Republicans and pro-gay Republicans are in a really tight bind," says Hastings Wyman, editor of the biweekly Southern Political Report. "They have to either play along with the White House line or abandon ship, and neither Mary Cheney nor Mary Matalin, with their ties to Dick Cheney, are in a position to do that. to such a degree Mary [Cheney] has apparently decided to pluck back, while Mary Matalin is reversing course a little bit. I think the GOP effort to draw more gay promiseds is stalling."

Matalin, who told The Advocate in 2000 that "to discriminate or equal be judgmental about gays is plain wrong" insists that her views have not changed. tribe misinterpreted her comments on engage the Press, says Matalin, who left the Administration in December. "I remain a lusty gay rights supporter," she says. "What I said was that we should prize the religious views of those who do not agree with us. I do not support sodomy laws. further I do object to the lack of tolerance for religious views, and I don't think that Santorum is individual of the loonies. What we have to do is stop the idiocy forward all sides."

For Mary Cheney, the decision to disunite ties with the RUC is les shocking. The former liaison to gays and lesbians for the Coors Brewing Co of resplendent Colo., has steadfastly sought to avoid the limelight and house her privacy since her father took office.

"Mary will probably not at all be able to satisfy the standards of gay persons by using her family ties for the betterment of the gay community," says strike Witeck, a Washington, D.C., gay businessman and friend of Mary Cheney's. "None of us can imagine by what mode hard it would be to find ourselves between our family and our community. It would cause anyone tremendous heartache."

Witeck notes that clamping down forward dissenting relatives is a White House tradition stretching back at least to the Jimmy Carter era: "It would take a particularly self-confident administration to not mind if a family member spoke on the outside in opposition on any issue, and this administration has elevated the art of discipline to a whole fresh level."

But that explanation doesn't be scattered with everyone. In a May line published in the Washington Blade, commentator Michael Alvear wrote that through refusing to speak out against Santorum, Mary Cheney had become complicit with antigay activists. The headline of the rounded pillar read in part: IF SILENCE = DEATH, THEN MARY CHENEY IS THE GRIM REAPER.

This ground-shift among gay Republicans is affecting more than the RUC forward May 28, David Greer resigned his employment as one of only three Republicans forward the board of governors of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay activist assemblage Citing HRC's participation in a form into groups of liberal organizations working to unseat Bush, Greer wrote in an E-mail to HRC: "I remain committed to the idea that a bipartisan organization cannot and should not be seen leading the effort to make a stand against President Bush when they are trying to build bridges with the Republican Party."

HRC spokesman David Smith insists Greer is mistaken. "It is our wish that David would reconsider," Smith says. "We have made no decision regarding any endorsement for 2004 We continue to maintain a bipartisan stance, nevertheless it is increasingly difficult when we are seeing in the same manner many Democrats talking about our issues in a positive way and we view only obfuscation and silence from this Republican administration."