GOP Sen. Cornyn, With Zero Percent Rating on Gay Issues, Honored by Gay Republicans

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas was honored with an award from a Republican gay rights group Wednesday night, just a day after voting against a bill that would have set in motion the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military.

The Log Cabin Republicans on Wednesday honored Cornyn, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, with the Barry Goldwater Award. The award, according to the group, "recognizes leaders in the Republican Party who have served their nation with distinction in the model of the late Senator Barry Goldwater."

Cornyn has a zero percent rating (out of 100) from the Human Rights Campaign, a GLBT rights group, when it comes to supporting gay rights issues. Sessions has a 6 percent rating.

Both leaders were initially slated to attend Wednesday night's awards dinner, but neither were there to accept their awards in person, the Hill reports. Cornyn was expected to attend as late as Wednesday afternoon, according to the Wall Street Journal, in spite of the fact that Christian conservative leader Tony Perkins had urged him to skip the event.

The Log Cabin Republicans, which are striving to unite the party around fiscal issues, also honored Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Anh "Joseph" Cao (La.), Judy Biggert (Ill.) and Charles Djou (Hawaii). Those four Republicans, along with Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, joined Democrats in May in voting in favor of an amendment to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," which was added to a Defense Authorization bill.

Sessions, however, voted against the amendment as well as the full Defense bill.

Cornyn voted against the Senate version of the Defense bill on Tuesday, as did every other Republican senator and a couple of Democratic senators.

While this week's Senate vote was seen as the last good opportunity to pass the DADT repeal, gay rights advocates are urging Congress to take up the matter again after the midterm elections.

Biggert, the Hill reports, told the crowd of about 200 at the Log Cabin event that "[the stars] will align on... 'don't ask, don't tell'... So don't be discouraged or disheartened by the setback this week."

A few Republicans -- particularly Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine -- were expected to possibly join Democrats in passing the Defense bill, but Collins said that she ultimately decided to vote against it since Republicans weren't able to offer amendments to the legislation.

Log Cabin Republicans executive director R. Clarke Cooper released a statement after the Senate vote blaming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the bill's failure.