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Francis wanted the group to have a non-Washington feel, and he wanted a prominent straight Republican as chairman. Cody's Alan Simpson was an obvious choice. Simpson, who turned 72 a month ago and who left the U.S. Senate in 1997 after an 18-year career, had been shocked by the Shepard murder. One of his cousins--"sweetest guy on earth," he says--had come out decades earlier, and Simpson and his wife Ann had socialized in Washington with gay people for years, even though Simpson, a Judiciary Committee bulldog, fought for some of the most conservative court nominees in the country.
Simpson describes the Laramie attack as a "crucifixion," and he spoke at a vigil at the U.S. Capitol not long after Shepard died. Barney Frank, the openly gay Massachusetts Congressman and a friend, warned Simpson that because he was a Republican, he would be booed at the vigil. He was, but lesbians and gays from around his state also introduced themselves to him that day. "I said to myself, 'This is fascinating; these people are from all over,'" Simpson recalls, with self-conscious bemusement. When Francis approached him to join the R.U.C., he readily agreed. The group signed its credo, the Cody Statement, in the basement of the town's Buffalo Bill Historical Center in August 2001, and its nickname became the Cody Republicans. "We are Republican because we believe in limited government, free markets, a strong national defense, and personal responsibility," it says in part. "Some of us are straight, some of us are gay or lesbian, and some of us think it is nobody's business but our own what we are. All of us are American."
Since its founding, the R.U.C. has given $100,000 to the G.O.P.'s congressional fund-raising committees, which buys it access on the Hill. Despite opposition from evangelical Christians, who make up a vastly bigger part of Bush's base than gays do, the White House has named three openly gay officials. Bush has refused to overturn Bill Clinton's Executive Orders banning anti-gay discrimination in the Federal Government. How much credit R.U.C. deserves for these developments isn't clear--those with real access to the White House take care not to discuss it. But even gay Democrats in Washington say having an openly gay conduit to the Oval Office can be crucial when gay issues arise.
The biggest test of R.U.C.'s influence will come in the bitter intraparty fight brewing over gay marriage. Some Republicans are pushing a constitutional amendment that not only would prohibit gay marriage (federal law already does that) but also could invalidate state domestic partnerships that give gay couples the same rights--inheritance and power over medical decisions, for instance--as straight married couples. Last month the Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Simpson opposing the amendment. Francis is careful to note that Bush hasn't come out in favor of it, though the President has said, vaguely, "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other."