California's Log Cabin Republicans group - long kept at arm's length by party leaders - is growing in numbers, attracting attention from GOP candidates and trying to dispel the notion that gays can't wield power in a party dominated by social conservatives.

But the nation's most vocal lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Republican organization has one big hurdle it hasn't cleared in its own party: official recognition. More than a quarter-century after the group was founded, the Log Cabin Republicans are barred from gaining inner-circle status in the state GOP, in part because of a party bylaw excluding groups advocating "certain lifestyle preferences or orientations."

Charles Moran, who heads the 1,000-member state Log Cabin organization, said he's determined to see that change by the time the party holds its next statewide convention in the Bay Area in March.

"I don't want to go to war with the GOP," Moran said. "But if I have to go on the floor to tell my coming-out story, I'll do it."

Moran said that as recently as five years ago, "no one would have entertained the notion of giving Log Cabin recognition."

But increasingly, Log Cabin Republicans express optimism that the time is right for their struggle for official recognition in the GOP.

Shifts affect GOP

Their organization, founded in San Francisco, has grown and gained national stature in recent years, and polls suggest that recent cultural shifts have transformed Americans' views of gay issues like same-sex marriage.

There were signs at the recent state GOP convention that those shifts are reaching into a party that for years has been dominated by social conservatives who view same-sex marriage and other gay causes as morally wrong.

Prominent Republicans like former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, a candidate for governor, and Catharine Baker, running for an Assembly seat in the East Bay now held by Democrat Joan Buchanan, announced their support at the Anaheim convention for the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The Marin County GOP became the first Republican county committee in the nation to support that right, and its action didn't even cause a stir at the party's Anaheim convention.

Hopeful candidates

Some Republican candidates - including Diane Harkey, who is running for the state Board of Equalization, and Elizabeth Emken, trying to wrest a House seat in the Sacramento area from Democratic Rep. Ami Bera - came to the Log Cabin caucus in Anaheim to appeal to gay delegates for endorsements.

And, with a state party desperately in need of resurrection in California, party Chairman Jim Brulte told Log Cabin members that the party welcomes their support and enthusiasm and "knows we have to be recognized," Moran said.

Activists formed the Log Cabin Republicans - the name refers to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln - in California in 1977 to oppose a constitutional amendment on the state ballot that would have barred gays and lesbians from working in public schools. From the beginning, said San Francisco chapter leader Fred Schein, members have had to battle the notion that it is "inconsistent to be conservative and a gay person."

Coming out conservative

"We're concerned about the nation, the economy and the excesses of government in people's lives," Schein said. Many newcomers to the group, he said, say that "when you find you can be out, it's exhilarating - and the same thing goes in politics."

Now, "we want to become an institutional part of the party," Schein said. "The word that's thrown around a lot is 'evolution.' "

Evolution, however, has been slowed by the Log Cabin Republicans' inability to win charter status in the party - a move that would give them delegate appointments, and therefore a bigger voice, in the GOP hierarchy. Charter status would also give the group a permanent seat on the state party's executive committee.

As late as the 1990s, conservative groups openly stymied the efforts of the Log Cabin group to gain official recognition. Aside from the "lifestyle preferences" mandate, party bylaws mandate that any group that wants to be chartered must have at least 10 chapters in the state, each of them with at least 10 members.

Extending reach

Log Cabin has thriving chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles and some other cities - largely Democratic areas that the gay group has staked out because "we go into the belly of the beast - places where other Republicans fear to tread," said Log Cabin member Brad Torgan of West Hollywood, secretary of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County.

But until recently, the group has had challenges establishing a foothold in rural areas. That has changed with the creation of chapters in the Central Valley, and group leaders predict they will have 10 active chapters and qualify for charter status by next year.

Moran said Brulte and other party leaders have also indicated that "the old paradigms" regarding "alternative" lifestyles no longer apply to groups representing lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

Those on the party's right flank who still control much of the state GOP, however, are unlikely to agree. One of the most prominent fundamentalist Republicans, the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, said at the recent GOP convention that he has been "fighting the gay agenda for 40 years" and will continue to push for the party to stand for "family values."

Moran said the Log Cabin Republicans have an effective case to make to the party as a whole.

"We'll take on some of the conservative non-thought leaders," he said, "because we're just as conservative and Republican as they are."