Draft GOP Platform Calls for Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
By Michael Crawford
Just yesterday Terry Bean wrote a fantastic post calling the Log Cabin Republicans out for considering an endorsement of John McCain even though McCain has one of the most anti-LGBT records in the Senate. Now comes word that the draft 2008 GOP Platform is calling for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
The GOP platform co-chairmen, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, told AP on Monday they wanted the party principles to be about the actual party. And in the past, Burr said, “there was a lot of Washington-speak.”
Despite the stylistic change, familiar divisions are back as Republicans debate the principles over two days and strive for a united front behind McCain. That means bridging some differences, detouring around others.
The platform draft calls for constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage, two steps McCain does not support.
Okay, so McCain supposedly does not support a federal constitutional ban on marriage, but he has come out in favor of the anti-gay state level amendments that will be on the ballot in Arizona, California and Florida. That for me is enough of a reason to oppose him as the president of a country that includes some 25 million LGBT people.
I admit that our friends at Log Cabin Republicans are in a serious bind. Their party’s nominee has opposed LGBT civil rights at every turn while Barack Obama has issued the strongest LGBT platform of any presidential nominee from a major party.
I feel bad for them. I really do.
But, the leaders of LCR have a very clear choice to make: they can either stand with the Republican Party even as it continues its assault against LGBT Americans or they can stand with their LGBT brothers and sisters who are fighting every day to live their lives openly and honestly and free from anti-LGBT discrimination.
Tags: Democrats, GOP Platform, LGBT rights, Log Cabin Republicans, Republicans
August 26th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
[...] 26, 2008 In a post I wrote for LGBT for Obama, I seemed to have gotten the attention of Log Cabin Republican communications director Scott Tucker [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Wasn’t it Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who signed the Defense of Marriage Act as well as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? The Democrats don’t care about LGBT people; they just want our vote!