Hiding among the Bushies: Barry Hayes took a job in Bush's reelection effort without mentioning he's gay. Turns out his coworkers needed no excuse to spew homophobia

Entering my new workplace in Bakersfield, Calif.--a firm that does fund-raising and consulting for the state Republican Party and George W. Bush's reelection bid--I see a cardboard Arnold Schwarzenegger happily lifting two children into the air. Nearby, a picture of a smiling Bush hangs on the walk. The entrance gives way to an office of ringing phones, angry political debates, and dark blue ties. Men are yelling into the phone, while women politely ask callers for thousand-dollar donations.

This mix of calm and chaos would be my job for the next three months. Here I was: a gay man and lifelong Democrat who had become the newest intern for the Bush-Cheney reelection effort.

I'd recently graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and wanted to remain politically active. I had written a political column in my college newspaper and was always a champion of gay rights. Yet I'd moved to conservative Bakersfield after graduation to be closer to family. There, conservative values seem to be more or less required if a person wants anything to do with politics. Plus I wanted to conduct a sort of secret experiment: I was curious as to what it was like to work with people who support Bush and his antigay Federal Marriage Amendment. I'd keep my mouth shut and my ears open. My suspicious were soon confirmed: These people are heavy on gay bashing when not in the public eye.

That first day I was quickly ushered into a meeting to discuss the upcoming election. Our first work to reelect Bush to the presidency was to be based on two strategies. The first was to register nonvoters as Republican, and the second was to convert Democrats within the Bakersfield area. Our primary targets were Hispanics. A supervisor named Vance told the staff that our message for those who "looked Mexican" was that Republicans firmly oppose abortion and gay marriage. Vance was interrupted by Eleanor, an older woman on her second marriage. She seized on the mention of gay marriage to present her opinion on the topic.

Her argument centered on the "fact" that gays "always have multiple partners." "How can they be expected to honor monogamy when they have to have sex?" Eleanor asked. Vance nodded agreement, as did many others in the room. Most everyone laughed at how sex-driven the gays were. I was surprised at how quickly the gay bashing had started. It was only my first meeting.

The firm's president and CEO each bad their own office; the rest of the staff sat in cubicles. Interns worked 40-hour weeks, on tasks such as asking for donations and polling voters. We were waiters at fund-raising dinners and pounded the streets to register voters. We were placed in our own room, where the majority of action and chatter took place.

Hillary Clinton was a preferred conversation topic during downtime. Our supervisor was convinced that she was a lesbian because, according to him, his high school friend apparently worked on Air Force One and swore that Hillary took female lovers on the plane. My eyebrows shot up in disbelief on hearing this story, but the group accepted this as fact. Even more bizarrely, an intern added, as evidence, that Hillary hates men. The discussion turned to the idea that any woman who hates men is a lesbian. Hence, all lesbians hate men. An end came to the conversation when it was generally agreed that all gay people hate the opposite sex.

The Bush reelection campaign charged on. Fund-raisers were held and money was earned. Dick Cheney came into town to speak, and Laura Bush held a phone conference explaining why her husband was a great man. When John Edwards was announced as John Kerry's vice presidential choice, the gay jokes' target transferred from Hillary Clinton to Kerry.

Kerry and Edwards were constantly mocked because of the literal closeness they publicly showed in terms of personal space in the weeks after Edwards joined the ticket. "They're in love!" one female intern giggled. A young male intern said, "They're liberal--of course they're gay." Debating with an intern about how Kerry would handle Iraq, a supervisor stated, "He's too busy hugging his boyfriend to worry about the war." My last meeting was with the CEO; his main point was that "the Democrats are exactly like the Baath Party in Iraq."

After that, I quit.

A few months after leaving, I reached a conclusion about what I learned from my experience: Bush's reelection campaign and Republican headquarters--at least the firm in Bakersfield--would never seek tolerance. They would never seek equality among Americans in pursuit of what's best for society. Sadly, their world revolves around what they consider normal, which is a mirror image of themselves. If they were to concede just once that someone other than themselves might be right, then their superiority would be lost.

I handed in my resignation without ever telling them I was gay, a Democrat, or sick over the way they conducted politics. It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Hayes is currently volunteering for the Kerry campaign and working on a master's degree in education.

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