The revelation that Senator John McCain's Chief of Staff Mark Buse is gay has drawn seemingly contradictory statements from dissimilar Republican groups.

Gay activist Mike Rogers delivered his Roy Cohn award to Buse at his Washington D.C. office on Monday. The award recognizes high-profile gays and lesbians who work against the interests of the gay and lesbian community. There is no record of Buse acknowledging he's gay publicly.

In making his case against Buse, Rogers said: “Mark Buse is not just a chief of staff for a homophobic United States senator, but he is helping that senator get elected to the White House.”

Rogers wrote on his blog Monday that three sources have confirmed to him that Buse is gay and in a long-term relationship with another man. And an ex-boyfriend of some twenty years has also stepped forward, speaking to satellite radio host Michelangelo Signorile.

Scott Tucker, communications director for the Log Cabin Republicans – the gay Republicans – called the outing a non-event.

“There is no 'bombshell',” Tucker wrote in response to the Michelangelo Signorile headline Hypocrisy Bombshell: Antigay John McCain has a Gay Chief of Staff. “Mark Buse has been openly gay for years and has acknowledged as much. So the notion that he has been 'outed' is simply false.”

Still, a search of the Log Cabin Republicans website and blog results in only one mention of Mark Buse, Tucker's Tuesday post. One would think, if Buse was openly gay as Tucker suggests, that the group would have lauded him, maybe interviewed him.

Tucker called Rogers' outing a “stunt” and a “witch hunt,” taking grave offense at Signorile and Rogers' use of the word homophobic in describing the Arizona senator.

“Can we please stop childishly lobbing the 'homophobic' insult at Republicans who don't agree with us on every issue? ... Calling John McCain homophobic doesn't make it so. John McCain is anything but homophobic.”

Tucker used the outing as evidence that McCain was an inclusive Republican. “John McCain is an inclusive Republican who hires the best people, regardless of sexual orientation.”

But while gay Republicans were insisting the outing only strengthened the case for McCain as a gay ally, others in the party were alarmed.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. a senior pastor at the Washington, D.C. Hope Christian Church, called the revelation that Buse is gay an attack on Christians.

“The pro-gay, anti-church groups see themselves in a death-lock in a war – and they hope to create a sense of disunity among Christians around [the question] 'can we really trust McCain?'” Jackson told One News Now.

Jackson went on to encourage McCain to take a stronger, more vocal anti-gay position.

“I wish [McCain] was more engaged positively [on the issue of banning gay marriage], because he's getting the negative attack no matter what.”

While McCain has voted against a federal constitutional ban against gay marriage, he supports state bans that bar gays from marrying, and campaigned for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Arizona. He has said gays and lesbians should not be allowed to adopt or foster children.

Of course, in a tent as large as the Republican Party, there is room enough for diverging points of view and disagreement. But aren't these opinions more similar than contrary?

Both Tucker and Jackson view Buse's gay outing as an attack and the outers as evil doers – they only differ in their rational in objecting to it.

Tucker finished his post with, “How ugly.”