Optimistic or Delusional? Why Gay Republicans Stand By Their Party’s Bigoted Platform
http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/optimistic-or-delusional-why-gay-republicans-stand-their-partys-bigoted-platform
The Log Cabin Republicans group turns 20 this year, but the partys platform committee did not give them much to celebrate. The Family Research Councils Tony Perkins has been bragging for more than a week about how much influence his group had on the platform, which reflects the religious rights anti-gay opposition to marriage equality. Perkins and others shot down an attempt to add support for civil unions to the platform.
But at a Monday afternoon reception co-hosted by Log Cabin and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the mood is surprisingly upbeat. Talking to people at the reception made me wonder at the fine, fuzzy line dividing optimism from delusion.This is our party.., LCRs Clarke Cooper insists. We are here to make it stronger and more inclusive.
ts a whole new world out there and in the Republican Party, says former member of Congress Jim Kolbe, who was outed while in office. He contends that the kind of resistance to LGBT equality that is reflected in this years platform is a generational issue -- "the last gasp of the conservatives," he calls it -- and boldly predicts that this is the last year in which the platform will contain such language. When I suggest that if Ralph Reeds turnout operation among conservative evangelicals does as much for the Republicans in November as Reed hopes, the party is not likely to turn its backs on the anti-gay religious right base, Kolbe shrugs and says both parties appeal to their bases for turnout. We will have the victory, he says.
Sarah Longwell, who serves on the Leadership Committee for Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, affirms that it was disappointing that Perkins, who is brutally anti-gay, was basically allowed to write the part of the platform pertaining to marriage and LGBT rights. Her group and LCR are taking out a full-page ad in tomorrows Tampa Tribune that quotes Tony Perkins on the importance of marriage, and offers this response:
We agree. That's why Log Cabin Republicans and Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry believe that government should stop denying marriage licenses to committed gay and lesbian families. As conservatives, we believe that the freedom to marry is directly in line with the core ideals and principles of the Republican Party.