By Cliff Dunn

(Disclosure: During the 2004 election cycle, the author, while working as a broadcast journalist, news director and political analyst in the Intermountain West, made the acquaintance of Jon Huntsman, Jr., then the Republican candidate for Utah governor, as well as his Democrat opponent, Scott Matheson, Jr. Following his election and inauguration, the author maintained his professional relationship with then-Governor Huntsman, who was on record as being a “fan” of the author’s political talk show.)

On Tuesday, Jon Huntsman, Jr., the former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination for President of the United States. What does this mean for LGBT Americans in the event the 51-year old wins his party’s nod for the White House?

Although not a household name in much of the country, Huntsman’s family has deep roots in Utah, where his father is well-known as the founder of Huntsman Chemical (now Huntsman Corporation), as well as a philanthropist and humanitarian whose contributions to help support the homeless, underprivileged and ill have exceeded $1.2 billion. Huntsman, Sr., is also the founder and principal benefactor of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and was the recipient of the American Cancer Society’s 2008 Medal of Honor for Cancer Philanthropy.

The younger Huntsman’s Republican pedigree covers decades of service at both the state and national levels. He served as a staff assistant in Ronald Reagan’s White House, and was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve first as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and later as United States Ambassador to Singapore, a post he held from 1992 to 1993.

He was appointed Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, and helped guide the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In 2004, Huntsman was elected Governor of Utah, winning re-election four years later with nearly 78% of the vote. During his time in office, Utah was named the “Best Managed State in America” by the Pew Research Center. Huntsman resigned as governor on August 11, 2009, a year into his second term, to accept the appointment by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to China.

The conservative publication The Weekly Standard called Huntsman as “impressive as [Louisiana Governor Bobby] Jindal, though far more moderate.” (That was in 2009, months before the governor resigned to accept Obama’s posting to the Middle Kingdom; fast forward two years to this past January, when Weekly Standard blogger Jay Cost opined that “Huntsman destroyed any chance of being president when he accepted this ambassadorship.”)

Those “far more moderate” credentials were in full view in February 2009, when Huntsman’s office announced – to widespread shock amongst the GOP’s Far Less Moderate Set – his support for civil unions at a time when 70% of Utah residents opposed them. At that time, the activist group Equality Utah was supporting five bills in the Utah legislature that were sponsored by two gay lawmakers. Three of the bills called for greater parity in the areas of housing, employment, inheritance rights, hospitalization and medical-decision making.

The other two pieces of legislation would have created a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples through the repeal of sections of the state’s constitutional marriage amendment. All five bills lacked one crucial commonality: the backing of the all-influential Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(By comparison, in November of that year, the Salt Lake City Council unanimously passed ordinances that barred discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; passage came after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announced its support for the ordinances. That support came following months of back-room negotiations between mid-level LDS leaders and leaders of Utah’s LGBT community. Said the Church’s public affairs spokesman: “The Church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage.”)

Huntsman’s support for the same-sex rights legislation came with a price tag: Scheduled to attend a Michigan GOP event in April 2009, his invitation to speak was withdrawn by a Republican county chairwoman after his support for same-sex civil unions was made public. At the time, Campaign for Michigan Families Chairman Gary Glenn said that “Kent County’s principled stand sends a strong message nationwide that grass roots conservatives will not embrace liberals who want to abandon the GOP platform’s commitment to traditional family values.” This line is very much in keeping with the views of the majority of social conservatives, many of whom will comprise the voters Huntsman will need to court during the 2012 primary season.

Huntsman may already be practicing the same sort of gymnastics his fellow Latter-day Saint, and fellow ex-governor, Mitt Romney, is engaged in over his spearheading of health care reform in Massachusetts – what fellow Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty has dubbed “Obamneycare.”

Addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, Huntsman tried to shore up his credentials as a social conservative. In remarks, he highlighted his record on abortion, saying he had “signed every pro-life bill that came to my desk” while governor.

Huntsman further said, “I signed the bill that made second-trimester abortions illegal, and increased the penalty for doing so. I signed the bill to allow women to know the pain an abortion causes an unborn child. I signed the bill requiring parental permission for abortion. I signed the bill that would trigger a ban on abortions in Utah if Roe v. Wade was overturned.”

He cautioned Republicans about making economic issues a higher priority than what he called “life” issues, claiming that “the deficit we will face is one that is much more destructive. It will be a deficit of the heart and of the soul.”

Said Huntsman: “That is a trade we should not make.”

Whether the social conservative activists who were present were buying what the former governor was selling is open for debate. Although introduced as “a good conservative” by Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and 1980s poster boy for the Religious Right, Ralph Reed, Huntsman was not as well-received – as measured by audience applause – as some of the other guest attendees, including Tea Party darling Michele Bachman, who won raucous applause with her defense of “traditional marriage.”

The dance has only just begun.