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.

Cross-posted at Bilerico

Open Letter to Log Cabin Republicans

First, congratulations on your upcoming convention and the historic choice of Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) now faces the important decision of endorsing, or not, the McCain-Palin ticket.

We applaud that LCR supports all Equality Goals, including marriage. We also applaud that in 2004 they had the good judgment not to endorse George W. Bush.

But should LCR endorse the McCain-Palin ticket? See after the jump.

The main argument for an endorsement so far would be because “Governor Palin is an inclusive Republican who will help Senator McCain appeal to gay and lesbian voters” (from a Log Cabin press release).

To justify this statement, her record should be examined in as much detail as possible.

As Governor of Alaska for the past 20 months, and prior as a mayor and council member of a small Alaskan town, Sarah Palin does not have many public statements regarding equality for gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans. We have created a comparison of Palin’s known positions on LGBT equality with those of Senators McCain, Obama, and Biden, and we have also listed the specifics about Palin positions on gay rights. From this we know three things about her regarding equality:

1) She opposes marriage equality. Unlike Obama, who says that marriage is between a man and a woman, but who supports the right of each state to define relationships (including civil marriage in California), Palin supported an amendment to Alaska’s constitution to define marriage as only between one man and one woman. McCain did the same in Arizona.

2) She vetoed legislation that would have denied the rights of same-sex partners of Alaska state employees to receive health and retirement benefits. This veto is often referred to in order to say she is pro-LGBTQ. In reality, she vetoed the legislation not because of any support for equality, but because the Alaska Attorney General, also a Republican, informed her that the legislation was clearly unconstitutional in view of a recent decision of the Alaska Supreme Court. Palin then went on to support a statewide public referendum (which cost the state between $750,000 and $1.2 million) to ask voters about a constitutional amendment to ensure that partners of state employees would not get these basic benefits.

3) She has stated that she has gay friends. This is used, presumably, to point out her open mindedness and support for LGBTQ equality. As we know, even the most staunchly anti-equality politicians have gay friends and family. Vice President Cheney has a lesbian daughter, Karl Rove had a gay stepfather (whom he adored and considered a father), and Alan Keyes has a lesbian daughter. These individuals have not only friends, but also close relatives who are gay and lesbian. Yet these individuals did great damage to our community and were road blocks to the advancement of LGBTQ equality.

We do not yet know her positions on other Equality Goals (Hate Crimes, ENDA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, DOMA, Transgender Equality, LGBTQ Youth Protections, LGBTQ Parenting Rights). We encourage Log Cabin Republicans to ask for her clear positions on these goals before issuing an endorsement. A simple and quick questionnaire for a candidate’s positions on equality is available here.

Those answers will have to be compared to John McCain positions on equality to make a decision. If answers to the questions to Governor Palin are not available in time for the endorsement, then the only real guidance for making an endorsement is Senator McCain’s well documented positions, which are anti-equality, and do not warrant the endorsement of a gay rights organization.

A recommendation based on other criteria would damage the reputation of Log Cabin Republicans because it would go against its own mission which states, “We stand for the proposition that all of us are created equal-worthy of the same rights to freedom, liberty, and equality.”

Respectfully,

Juan Ahonen-Jover, Ph.D.
Ken Ahonen-Jover, M.D.
Founders, eQualityGiving

P.S. Readers commenting on this article: we ask that you please do not attack Log Cabin Republicans. The purpose of this article is to encourage them to follow their own mission and make an endorsement based on the position on equality of the candidates.

Denial is more than a river in Egypt. During the same week Michelle Obama, Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton speak out for gay rights at the Democratic National Convention, a draft emerges of the new, anti-gay platorm of the Republican Party. Oh, and the capital gains tax-lovin’ homocons at the Log Cabin dismiss the platform as "symbolic." Priceless. The Associated Press reports:

The platform draft calls for constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage, two steps McCain does not support.

It would put the party on record as accepting that economic activity contributes to global warming, in line with McCain’s views.

But the platform is loaded with caveats about the uncertainty of science and the need to "resist no-growth radicalism" in taking on climate change. …

Sharp divisions still exist in the party on social issues, but there appeared to be little taste for complicating McCain’s chances by mounting a symbolic platform fight as the document is hashed out in Minneapolis. "This isn’t a hill we’re going to die on," said Scott Tucker, a spokesman for the gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans.

Log Cabinette Tucker continues his denials over at Blog Cabin. You know, the same blog that never reported its off-the-record "backdoor" diplomacy with John McCain. Tucker’s revisionism is quaint. "Yes, the GOP party platform again includes anti-gay things that it shouldn’t," Tucker says. "As we said in this Associated Press article, the party platform isn’t the hill we’re going to die on. Party platforms are largely symbolic. That doesn’t mean that they don’t matter at all. They do. But sometimes you have to pick your battles."

Here is some straight talk for Scott Tucker, the Log Cabin Republicans and other gay McCain groupies: The Reopublican presidential nominee is just not that into you. What "battles" will you fight? McCain supports the marriage bans in California and Arizona and opposes pro-gay legislation such as ENDA or expanding hate crime definitions. The Log Cabinettes are quick to remind us that McCain opposes a federal amendment but he sure did campaign for the Arizona marriage amendment that ultimately failed. These are not “symbolic” gestures, these are positions and legislation that affects millions of gay men, lesbians and transgenders. Barack Obama opposes state and federal marriage amendments and supports increased rights for our community. ‘Nuff said.

At least we know the Republican Party’s position on "gay rights".