Marin Repub­licans officially support gay marriage

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with Republican politics becoming increasingly unpopular, the Marin County Republican Central Committee recently voted to support same-sex marriage.

It is the first Republican county central committee to ever do so.

The new position on same-sex marriage is just one step in the newly proposed two-to three-year plan to rejuvenate the Republican party in Marin.

The move comes simply as a response to the lack of support for the local Republican party.

Fewer voters register as Republicans each year, and in Marin County, more voters register as unaffiliated than as Republican, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University associate professor of political science.

And the disparity continues to widen.

Kevin Krick, the Republican Central Committee’s chairman, said the local party members have been analyzing polls and data from a “purely quantitative standpoint.”

He told the Marin Independent Journal:

“We tried to base our decisions on facts not feelings, like any company would do. We asked ourselves, ‘What is it that we can do here to improve our product?'”

Krick also said that personal liberties, like choosing whom you marry, is a core value of Republican philosophy.

Among those who voted for the change was Fred Schein, a gay member of Marin’s Republican central committee.

Schein, who also serves as president of the Log Cabin Republican Club of San Francisco – an organization that represents gays and lesbians who ally themselves with the political right, said it was the right thing to do.

Despite the right’s historical reluctance to accepting non-heterosexual lifestyles, Schein said he sees no discrepancy in being gay and a Republican:

“It’s kind of fun [being a gay Republican] because no one takes you casually.”