Words and photos by Karen Ocamb

Other governors have been comfortable with gay people: California Democrat Gray Davis, Massachusetts Republican William Weld, and Arkansas Democrat Bill Clinton after he launched his presidential campaign, for instance. But no governor, especially one seeking re-election in the presence of media cameras, has ever opened a keynote address to an LGBT group the way California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did June 29 before the Log Cabin Republicans.

"I love the Log Cabin Republicans, I love this organization, I love all of you," Schwarzenegger told an enthusiastic crowd of about 350 at the Renaissance Hotel, including first lady Maria Shriver, a famous pro-gay Kennedy Democrat who rarely attends Republican events. Shriver later worked the room with her openly gay chief of staff, Daniel Zingale.

Event co-chair Jim Arnone presented Schwarzenegger with the President Ronald Reagan Award. In 1978, a handful of gays asked former Gov. Reagan to oppose the Briggs Initiative, a ballot measure that prohibited gays from holding teaching jobs and demanded the firing of straight teachers who endorsed gay rights. Log Cabin was formed to fight the measure. In an op-ed credited with defeating the initiative, Reagan wrote that Prop. 6 had "the potential of infringing on basic rights of privacy and perhaps even constitutional rights."

Ironically, a year earlier, according to the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger told Oui magazine: "Recently I posed [nude] for a gay magazine, which caused much comment. But it doesn't bother me. Gay people are fighting the same stereotyping that bodybuilders are: People have certain misconceptions about them just as they do about us." He subsequently befriended scores of gays in the entertainment industry.

During his remarks to LCR, Schwarzenegger reached out to this natural constituency but dodged the elephant in the room—his veto of the marriage equality bill last year. In his veto message, he indicated that he would follow the anticipated California Supreme Court ruling, adding, "I believe that lesbian and gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based on their relationships."

Aware that LCR was also disappointment by the veto, which pleased the GOP’s religious base, Schwarzenegger spoke in emotional generalities. "I love being here with my friends," Schwarzenegger said, noting that he received “80 percent of the votes from you [in the recall]. The other 20 percent never forgave me for my movie, Hercules in New York."

LCR understands, Schwarzenegger said, that what unites us are “common values of tolerance, understanding, respect, equality, and inclusion." He saluted LCR for “helping make us a stronger party, a better state, and a more perfect union." This is the land of opportunity, where “a person should only be limited by his dreams and not by his background, and not by his heritage and not by his sexual orientation… We need to address problems rather than attacking people… Whether you are gay or straight, everyone needs someone to love… While we may not agree on every issue, we are united in the values of love, understanding and tolerance.”

Schwarzenegger called for “a better future for California where everybody matters and every family counts. In our society, we need a higher level of understanding, not lower; and we need a sense of tolerance that is stronger, not weaker. I pledge to you that I will continue to promote these values as your governor as your fellow Republican, and as your friend. Tonight, I’m proud to be on the same team as all of you. I can't promise we will always be of the same mind, but I can promise you I will always have an open mind.” (Video of the speech will be posted on www.logcabinca.org.)

LCR President Patrick Guerriero, who is leaving LCR in September, was welcomed with sustained applause. Speaking extemporaneously, he talked about the “the passion I have for equality” and importance of maintaining dignity and integrity when confronted by attacks from the far right and the far left and those who expect them to relinquish their conservatism. "No way. We have values and we stick by them," he said. “Log Cabin doesn’t run from a fight… In this room are the kind of people I would get into a foxhole with any day.”

It’s a sentiment Marc Cherry understands. The creator of Desperate Housewives was given the Log Cabin American Visibility Award by San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Cherry said he came out twice in his life: the first time as gay to his family and the second time as a Republican, accepting the award.

Cherry joked that he was born in Orange County and therefore registered Republican at birth. But the truth, Cherry explained, was that his father worked for Occidental Petroleum and as a child he lived in Hong Kong and Teheran. “One of the reasons I support our president so strongly for what he’s trying to do in the Middle East is because I know those guys,” he said. "I don't follow the established orthodoxy of any party. I like to think for myself… Before I am a gay man, I’m an American.”

Jeff Bissiri, director of LCR/California, told IN that Schwarzenegger helped raise about $100,000 for LCR. The event also featured state Republican Party Chair Duf Sundheim announcing the elected officials (D.A. Steve Cooley, Sheriff Lee Baca, and Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin), as well as acknowledging openly gay (and straight) candidates. The event also honored LCR’s founders.

Schwarzenegger’s appearance was “a big deal,” Guerriero told IN. “This is a man who has signed over a dozen pro-LGBT bills, more than any other governor in America, and we need to have a further conversation with him about marriage equality. My assumption is this: there is a better than 50-50 chance this man is the governor over the next five years. We’re going to be facing a court decision, ballot questions, and a debate in this state and to say that there is a conservative voice within the LGBT movement that believes in marriage equality I think can add to us realizing it sooner rather than later.”

“It was great that he said that we should only be limited by the limits of our dreams, not by our sexual orientation. And I hope he remembers that because his veto pen is limiting us by our sexual orientation and our rights to equality and the right to protect our families which he and his family—who were here tonight—enjoy,” said Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors. “And we don’t want to be tolerated. We want to be treated equally. And he talked more about tolerance than about equality and that was disappointing.”

The event was a “two-fer,” Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum, editor of the California Target Book, told IN. “It’s very important to the gay community—having the sitting governor of the state of California coming to a gay group.” But “this is important for Arnold’s re-election. This is Arnold once again moving to the center, outreaching to those independent voters and what I call soft Democrats—they may be registered Democrats but they’re not fiercely partisan… And this is Arnold’s attempt to tell gay voters, I’m really on your side and consider voting for me. That’s what this is really all about.”