Socially conservative Republicans will be more successful this fall if they downplay their views on “abortion, gay marriage and other hot button social issues,” says Cameron Lynch, a GOP strategist writing in Politico yesterday.

Lynch urges candidates to follow the lead of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, whose strategy of “biting his tongue…netted him the support of independents and moderate conservatives who either stayed home or voted for Obama in 2008,” he wrote.  ”Social and ‘movement’ conservatives, apparently adequately convinced that McDonnell was ‘one of them’, overlooked his unwillingness to preach their gospel on the campaign trail,” Lynch added.

Lynch’s advice is hard to argue with.  McDonnell breezed into office, and almost immediately began to implement a conservative social agenda that set back LGBT rights in the state.  The question now is this:  Will LGBT Americans and their allies allow this to happen in races across the country this year?

California GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman says gays and lesbians should be able to adopt children but not legally marry.  The former CEO of eBay is leading her rivals in the race for the Republican nomination.  She sat down with the San Jose Mercury News, which reported:

Asked to reconcile her stance against same-sex marriage with her willingness to allow gays and lesbians to adopt children, Whitman said she believes the term “marriage” should apply only to the union of a man and a woman. Still, she’s in favor of granting equal rights to gay people through civil unions and domestic partnerships.

And she approves letting gays adopt because “many kids need a great home.”

If she wins the GOP nomination, Whitman will likely face former governor and current California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the general election this November.  Brown supported efforts to invalidate Proposition 8, which ended marriage equality in the state.  Whitman supported Prop 8, explaining it was “a matter of personal conscience and my faith.”

The owners of DC Agenda, which replaced the Washington Blade when its parent company ceased operations last year, have reached a deal to purchase the Blade’s 40-year archive of content chronicling nearly the entire modern LGBT rights movement.

In a release on its site, DC Agenda owner Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, Inc., said it was relieved the print and electronic archive would be preserved for the public. The company has also purchased all rights to the Washington Blade name, but it was unclear whether that will lead to a resurrection of the brand.

A Pentagon spokesman yesterday said Congressional action on repealing or altering “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be delayed until the completion of a Defense Department internal review of how a policy shift could be implemented.  That process, which is supported by top Pentagon officials, is expected to take up to one year.

Reuters reported:

Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Armed Services Committee and agrees with Obama that gays should be able to serve openly, has suggested a possible compromise — a moratorium suspending discharges of gays from the military under the current policy.

Such a moratorium could be added to legislation authorizing defense programs as it moves through Congress in the coming months, Levin told Reuters earlier this week.

[Pentagon spokesman Geoff] Morrell said Gates agreed with top brass that it would be a “mistake” to pass a moratorium before the review is completed. He said the proposal amounted to a “repeal by another name.”

Laura Duffy, a successful federal prosecutor since 1993, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. An out lesbian, Duffy is one of more than 100 presidential appointments of openly LGBT Americans since Obama took office.  Learn more about her appointment in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Presidential Appointments Project, a coalition of national LGBT organizations led by the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, has worked to facilitate the appointment of qualified openly LGBT applicants.  To find out more about the program and its successful applicants, go here.

Photo:  San Diego Union Tribune