By Michael Crawford

The Republicans has released its 2008 GOP Party Platform and let’s just say they don’t love The Gays.

Here are a couple of the anti-gay highlights:

On the Military:

Personnel policies

The all-volunteer force has been a success. We oppose reinstituting the draft, whether directly or through compulsory national service. We support the advancement of women in the military and their exemption from ground combat units. Military priorities and mission must determine personnel policies. Esprit and cohesion are necessary for military effectiveness and success on the battlefield. To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.

(emphasis added)

On Marriage

Preserving Traditional Marriage

Because our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives.

Republicans recognize the importance of having in the home a father and a mother who are married. The two-parent family still provides the best environment of stability, discipline, responsibility, and character. Children in homes without fathers are more likely to commit a crime, drop out of school, become violent, become teen parents, use illegal drugs, become mired in poverty, or have emotional or behavioral problems. We support the courageous efforts of single-parent families to provide a stable home for their children. Children are our nation’s most precious resource. We also salute and support the efforts of foster and adoptive families.

Republicans have been at the forefront of protecting traditional marriage laws, both in the states and in Congress. A Republican Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act, affirming the right of states not to recognize same-sex “marriages” licensed in other states. Unbelievably, the Democratic Party has now pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which would subject every state to the redefinition of marriage by a judge without ever allowing the people to vote on the matter. We also urge Congress to use its Article III, Section 2 power to prevent activist federal judges from imposing upon the rest of the nation the judicial activism in Massachusetts and California. We also encourage states to review their marriage and divorce laws in order to strengthen marriage.

As the family is our basic unit of society, we oppose initiatives to erode parental rights.

In the midst of what can only be described as an assault on LGBT Americans, the Log Cabin Republicans have issued an endorsement of the anti-gay duo of John McCain and Sarah Palin claiming that

Sen. McCain is an inclusive Republican who is focusing the GOP on unifying core
principles that appeal to independent voters.

(emphasis added)

I guess focusing the GOP on its hatred to LGBT Americans is a “unifying core principle.” But, why an organization that claims to promote “legislation to provide basic fairness for gay and lesbian Americans and works to build a more inclusive GOP” is beyond me.

The lines have been drawn and the choice is clear. If you support LGBT civil rights, then Barack Obama is the presidential candidate for you. If you believe that LGBT Americans are unworthy of basic civil rights and that our families should be used as political punching bags to raise cash and court right-wing votes, then John McCain is your man.

Tags: Gay Conservatives, GOP Platform, John McCain, LGBT rights, Log Cabin Republicans, Sarah Palin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under John McCain, LGBT rights, Republicans, Sarah Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.