GOP chair addresses gay rights activists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Marc Racicot spoke before more than 300 gay rights activists in Washington March 7, marking the first time a sitting GOP chair has addressed a gay audience. He appeared before the board of directors and a cadre of fund-raisers and staff members of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group.

The event, which was closed to the press, took place at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. “It was an historic moment for the gay community and the Republican Party,” gay Republican activist Carl Schmid told The Washington Blade, a newspaper written for homosexuals in the Washington area.­