Anti-Gay Proposals Killed Again by GOP : Rules: Two O.C. politicians spark a fight for the sixth year running with the measures. One directs that the party be dedicated to a ‘heterosexual ethic.’

SACRAMENTO —  State Republican Party leaders succeeded again Saturday in killing two anti-gay proposals submitted to the GOP’s weekend convention by two Orange County lawmakers.

Anti-gay statements introduced by Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) and Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) have stirred controversy at almost every state Republican convention for the last six years.

An angry Ferguson accused party leaders Saturday of being afraid to present the anti-gay language to the convention delegates and suggested that they finally put the issue behind them by simply allowing a vote.

“The membership is getting restless,” he said. “For five years we’ve faced stacked committees and delay after delay after delay. I’m disappointed.”

The two proposals were offered as amendments to Republican Party bylaws. They were narrowly rejected by the Rules Committee, averting a vote today on the convention floor.

Ferguson’s proposal would bar the party from granting a charter to any Republican organization that is based on sexual preference. It is directed at the Log Cabin Club, a gay Republican group in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Dannemeyer sought to add language to the party’s statement of purpose that says the party is dedicated to a “heterosexual ethic,” which he defined as “a man and a woman joined together in an institution called marriage.”

Last year, when GOP leaders were striving for unity at their convention shortly before a tightly fought gubernatorial race, the Dannemeyer and Ferguson proposals were allowed to pass quietly after negotiations resulted in new language that critics said was harmless.

In that vote, the language was in the form of a resolution. This time the authors sought the additional step of adding the statements to the party’s bylaws.

And once again, it proved to be a flash point at the convention.

“This controversy deals with a fringe group,” state Republican Party Chairman Frank Visco said. “Dannemeyer represents a small group, not the consensus of the Republican Party. This kind of rhetoric on single issues is destructive.”

Dannemeyer recently announced that he will run next year against newly appointed U.S. Sen. John Seymour. Seymour, a former state senator from Anaheim whose former district overlapped Dannemeyer’s at Disneyland, said in a press conference Saturday that his opponent is “fixated on gay bashing.”

“They really represent a very narrow and small part of our Republican Party,” he said.