By Karen OCamb

Thanks in large part to television, Americans -- including gay Americans -- have become accustomed to serious clashes being resolved within an hour or two. Conflicts over conscience or principle are too often assigned to subplot C, a back-drop, incidental to the main action. But for director Wash Westmoreland, whose award-winning documentary Gay Republicans comes out on DVD on Aug. 30, conflicts of conscience are as gripping as any Jerry Bruckheimer blow up and,while a conclusion is reached in 60 minutes, a real resolution is far from clear.

In February 2004, Westmoreland read a newspaper article on the gay Log Cabin Republican Club (LCR) and how, in response to President George W. Bush's public endorsement of a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, LCR intended to raise $1 million to fight the federal and similar state amendments in swing states during the election year.

"Gay Republicans against Bush? Now that's interesting. There's conflict there," Westmoreland told IN, recalling his reason for making the documentary.

Westmoreland decided to hone in on the struggles individual gay Republicans faced within and among themselves as they wrestled with whether Log Cabin should endorse Bush in his re-election bid against Democrat Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Traditional Republicans who believe in lower taxes, smaller government, and being fiscally conservative, these gay GOPers were among the one million gays who voted for the "compassionate conservative" Bush in 2000. For them it has not been an oxymoron to be both gay and Republican.

But as Bush became more publicly aligned with anti-gay evangelical Christians, gay Republicans such as Los Angeles attorney Carol Newman and former Arizona state legislator Steve May, for whom being gay is an integral aspect of their lives, were forced to deeply question their political allegiance. On the other hand, gay Republicans such as Los Angeles' Mark Harris and Palm Beach's haughty hairdresser Maurice Bonamigo, for whom being Republican is a paramount priority, shrugged off Bush's marriage amendment position as a misreading of the president's attitudes towards gays and affirmed that the country is not ready for gay marriage.

"I'm willing to ignore that [Bush's endorsement of the constitutional amendment] to get my point across," says Harris. "I would feel a lot more comfortable in a room full of Republicans than a room full of gay people -- the reason being, gays judge other gays."

Republicans, Harris says, "don't know you're gay" without a gay name tag. "That's why, to me, being gay is not even an issue. I'm a Republican. I'm an American before anything. I'm an American who happened to be born gay."

The ultra-conservative Bonamigo, for whom Palm Beach's rich society seems to be life's gold ring, is proud that he led his local LCR club to endorse Bush, despite the ultimate non-endorsement by the entire LCR organization. The Palm Beach club was kicked out of LCR for its defiance.

"He betrayed us?" Bonamigo says, dripping contempt. "For God's sake, get your balls out of your purse and be a Republican."

Westmoreland calls Newman's journey, including her wedding to her partner in Massachusetts, "the emotional core of the documentary. Here's someone who is being directly, personally affected by the legislation and she's struggling with her allegiance to the Republican Party. She felt the consequences in her own life."

May gets to the heart of the issue. "I think the truth is we are the spiritual and intellectual descendents of the American Revolution," May says to an appreciative audience of gay politicos. "We're not fighting for gay rights. We're fighting for America to stand up for what it believes in."

"It's about two identities -- one a gay identity, and one a Republican identity. These people are trying to wed the two, as it were, in the face of the gay marriage debate," says Westmoreland, adding that his British heritage may have afforded him non-partisan distance. "The documentary gives an insider's view of what was going on inside the Republican Party and the grassroots right-wing in 2004. Log Cabin had a front-row seat and they were one of the first to sound the alarm about the strength of the religious right.

"The purpose of making the documentary is to show how this issue [gay marriage] is being politically manipulated and how it affects people caught in the crosshairs," says Westmoreland. "In the Republican Party, the far right wing has so much power right now and this issue is being played with such force, it's the thing that drives membership causing people to go door to door like an army of soldier ants marching across the red states."

Tapping into another current phenomenon, Westmoreland says he's pitching a reality TV show following around Bonamigo and Harris, who is considering running for political office in 2006.