Posted on 02/04/2020 4:39:02 PM PST by Ennis85
President Trump waved the rainbow flag at a campaign rally, entered office supporting same-sex marriage, and has appointed openly gay officials to major posts in his administration. No, the president's record on gay and transgender rights isn’t perfect, but under Trump, the national Republican Party has tacked away from division on gay rights and more or less moved on from the wedge issue. Yet the weekend brought a sad reminder that while the GOP nationally grows more tolerant and inclusive of gay people, particularly among young Republicans, some states are lagging behind, woefully so.
On Saturday, the Texas Republican Party barred the Texas Log Cabin Republicans, a state branch of the largest gay and transgender GOP organization, from official party affiliate recognition, even going so far as to deny them a booth at the state convention. Opponents of the gay GOP group’s recognition included Republican state Sen. Bob Hall, who decried the organization for supposedly promoting “unnatural sex,” and religious activist Steven Hotze, who lobbied against the group’s admission by ranting about gay people’s allegedly “immoral and perverted sexual proclivities.”
What a disgrace.
The Texas GOP is well within its rights to maintain socially conservative stances on issues such as same-sex marriage, and individual members have every right to their religious views on homosexuality as well. But to bar gay Republicans from the party despite them agreeing on almost all core principles and having worked hard to elect Republicans screams of bigotry and discrimination.
It’s also awful politics. In a major election year, Republicans should be seeking to make the party as big a tent as possible, to bring in the diverse coalition of voters required to re-elect President Trump and send Republicans to Congress. In some cases, such as San Diego congressional candidate Carl DeMaio and San Antonio candidate Mauro Garza, gay Republicans themselves represent a viable path to flipping more seats red. Anyone putting petty bigotry over actual electoral results is doing the GOP a disservice.
It’s also entirely inconsistent with many of the GOP’s other professed principles, such as individual liberty and small government. Additionally, denying the gay Republican group is inconsistent with where much of the Texas GOP (to say nothing of Republicans nationally) is actually at on these issues.
After all, the Log Cabin Republicans had the backing of the Texas Young Republicans and even the support of Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw. The freshman congressman and GOP wonderkid penned a letter calling for their acceptance, insisting that “Disagreements over certain policy issues should not be enough to exclude a group that shares the vast majority of conservative governing principles.”
“It's unfortunate that in a post-Obergefell world, and a post-Trump election, there are those in Texas Republican Party leadership who still oppose common sense, and legally mandated equality,” Charles Moran, managing director of the national Log Cabin Republicans, told me. “There is no place in modern political discourse for the venom and sheer ignorance displayed by those opposing Log Cabin recognition in the party. And their opposition goes against the beliefs of President Trump, the mainstream Republican Party, and average conservative Texans that pride themselves on increasing individual responsibility and personal freedom.”
“We've earned our seat at the table, and rank bigotry of this kind has no place in the modern day Republican Party,” Moran finished. His frustration was palpable, but it’s fully justified. The GOP should be a home for gay Republicans, religious conservatives, and all who believe in free markets, individual liberty, constitutional conservatism, and other core conservative values.
Of course, core disagreements on moral and religious issues among Republicans are still inevitable. But overt discrimination and exclusion of gay Republicans who otherwise largely agree with the party's principles doesn’t have to be.
(Minor disclosure: I have spoken at two Log Cabin Republicans-affiliated events in Washington but received no compensation from the group.)
BS - under the constitution you HAD legally mandated “equality”
What you demanded was to carve yourself a niche as special citizens with preferred rights!
The Republican Party can deny anyone inclusion..They won’t get much of the gay vote anyway...
Parties should avoid Identity Politics.
Pro-life Democrats get their own booth, or the boot?
Pro-life Democrats get their own booth, or the boot?
Do they? Get a booth. Or booted?
I welcome any gay people who care to vote for Trump and other good Republicans down ticket. There are quite a few gay people who support low taxes, a positive business environment, and protecting the unborn.
Unlike race, color, ethnicity, height, etc., which do not equate to immoral behavior, homosexual relations is an issue of morality. If being of a certain religion meant affirming a practice that results in over 90% of new HIV cases among men 13–24 and over 80% overall [1] [2] among men (after almost 40 years[3] of trying to tame it), and or increasing cost to taxpayers to treat or prevent it,[4] [5] then it would hardly find protection, let along promotion.
God made man and women distinctively different yet uniquely compatible and complementary, and only joined them together in marriage - as the Lord Jesus Himself specified (Mt. 19:4–6) - and only condemned homosexual relations wherever they are manifestly dealt with.
Yet there is still room at the cross for all who will come to God in repentance and faith, and trust in the Divine Son of God sent by the Father, the risen Lord Jesus, to save them on His account, by His sinless shed blood, and thus be baptized and live for Him. Acts 10:36-47
Footnotes
The complaint is utterly unwarranted, for I quoted nothing, and the statistical claims were linked to documented material. Nevertheless, I provide footnotes for them. Please restore despite pressure not to.
Anyone who defines themselves or their organization by some alternative “sexuality” should be shunned by society in every single area.
“On Saturday, the Texas Republican Party barred the Texas Log Cabin Republicans, a state branch of the largest gay and transgender GOP organization, “
WTF! There are Republican trannies?? What’s next, child molesters? You cant be a fag and a conservative at the same time.
Republicans shouldn’t recognize sub-groups with agendas in which they don’t believe. No more need for a gay Republican group than an abortion Republican group, an open-borders Republican group, a racial-quotas Republican group, etc. Gays are welcome to work with Republicans to advance common issues, but they have no right, moral or legal, to force their agenda on the great majority of Republicans who believe in traditional family values.
Cool, we can call them “Trump/conservative voters.” They’ll fit right in.
Tolerance is not a virtue.
And why should we tolerate perversion?
Even President Trump is not perfect.
Disappointed in the Washington Examiner on their tone here, liberal finger pointing and holier than thou approach.
So all this big tent talk is a bunch of crap. Ya’ll going to have to learn thst if they are not against us, they are with us. Republicans are slowly getting the black vote back...or dont we want them perople as well? Got to stop the “if the aint like me, to hell with them!” Democraps dont care who joins them. We have a crap load of illegals that can throw this election As long as they stand for conservative principles, and love this country, let God judge the rest, like he will with us. None of us are Saints, and unless you are working on a gay final solution, we have to live with them. Stand up against them when they try to force their lifestyle on us, but like I said, if they aint against us, they are with us!
I dont use people. I dont use them and then ignore them like the democrats do.
I won’t be pushing for anything in their agenda, i wont lie and say we’ll be for you if you vote for us. screw that.
Let them be their own little 1-2% voting block party.
The contributor Palumbo is a ...was a former editor of a Libertarian media non-profit...He is skewed to say the least....
There are gays who are for us on economic issues but against us on social issues such as gay marriage. We don’t have to be stupid when we deal with gays. Suppose there is, say, a gay economist who doing a great job fighting socialism. Should we say, “Get lost because you are a log cabin Republican?” Of course not — give the guy a job in economic policy. But we shouldn’t plant him in the Dept. of Education.
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