Sep 19, 2011

fox slc

Gay presidential candidate attends Log Cabin Republicans reception with Gov.

Fox 13 News

10:14 pm MDT, Sept. 19, 2011

SALT LAKE CITY –

For link to story, CLICK HERE

One of the nation’s only Republican organizations that advocates for the rights of homosexual, bi-sexual and transgender people, the Log Cabin Republicans, had their annual meeting at the Governor’s Mansion Monday night.

Governor Gary Herbert and a number of Utah’s conservative politicians got together with the conservative gay activists group as a social event Monday night. Log Cabin members were met with several special guests including 21-year-old Dane Hall, the gay man who survived a brutal attack last month in Salt Lake City.

The other guest, Fred Karger, the first openly gay Republican presidential candidate, stopped in Salt Lake City during his campaign schedule to attend. He calls the Log Cabin meeting the most extraordinary event of his last 19 months campaigning.

“As a gay Republican, this is very unusual treatment. This is so spectacular. I don’t get that in my home state of California,” Karger said. “So the fact that the Utah Log Cabin Republicans have done this now for five years is so significant — it’s building these bridges, it’s finding that common ground. I want to take this message all over the country.”

The Utah Speaker of the House, the Governor, and some Democrats say that they don’t agree with everything, but Utah is a place where everyone is respected.

The biggest moment of the evening was the appearance of Dane Hall. Hall, who was attacked by four men shouting gay slurs, sat in the Governor’s Mansion during the reception to hear the state’s top public officials say such an attack has no place anywhere in society and certainly not in Utah.

To watch Karger’s clip below, CLICK HERE.

fox news video clip