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A gay Republican may well be the definition of an American oxymoron. In 2004, President Bush's opposition to gay marriage was writ large in his support for a Constitutional amendment that would recognise a marriage only between a man and a woman. This sent seismic waves through the Log Cabin Republicans, an organisation of gay and lesbian conservatives that was established within the party in 1978 to represent the interests of gays and lesbians. The fracas that ensued with Bush's predictable position was something of a gift for documentarian Wash Westmoreland, who has made a well-observed record of a straining, imploding political body in which ultra-conservatives rub up hard against those in the party more eager to preserve gay rights. In this often amusing expose we meet some truly memorable characters, as Bush loyalists such as the garrulous, egotistical Mark Harris and Palm Beach hairdresser Maurice Bonamigo face-off against the likes of the more moderate Steve May, once the pin-up boy for gay rights and clearly ill at ease with the conservative rabble-rousers in the Cabin. --- D Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Wash Westmoreland P Anne Clements WS Sandra Piha TD video/col/2004/63mins
