Hearing that quote, Foster laughs. Meanwhile, Foster had become a prominent conservative activist in Los Angeles, and in 1984 she ran as a Republican for the state assembly in an overwhelmingly black and Democratic district. Not surprisingly, she was trounced. During that campaign, Foster courted a gay Republican organization called the Log Cabin Club, recalls Frank Ricchiazzi, one of its founders. She said all the right things.
Foster disputes that story.
Either way, Foster soon emerged as one of the city's most outspoken opponents of gay rights. She formed a group called Black Americans for Family Values and lobbied against AIDS education in schools, which she regarded as promoting homosexuality. She had these leaflets about how gays were taking over the Republican Party. In 1992 and 1996, Foster supported Pat Buchanan's unsuccessful campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, and when Buchanan quit the Republican Party last fall to run for the Reform nomination, Foster went with him. In August, when Foster accepted Buchanan's offer to be his vice presidential running mate, she resigned her job as a traveling speaker for the John Birch Society, a post she'd held since 1996.