November 28, 2005

GayPatriot's issue with the Log Cabin Republicans isn't new. Today, he has some tough words for the leadership of the Log Cabin Republicans.

If Log Cabin is regain the influence it lost last fall when it not only refused to endorse the president, but also repeatedly attacked him during the fall campaign, it needs to build bridges to Republican and conservative organizations and elected officials as much as (if not more so than) it does to gay groups. Not only that. Log Cabin needs to change its policy vis à vis other gay organizations.

It should not be grounds for dismissal if a Log Cabin employee takes issue with another LGBT group. Indeed, it should be the group’s policy to take issue with such groups when they unfairly attack the president, oppose his nominees, support liberal policies or make left-wing pronouncements.
[Log Cabin — Greater Standing Among Gay Groups, Increasingly Irrelevant to the GOP - GayPatriot - 11-28-05]

LCR should find a way to strengthen its relationship with the GOP and strive to bring partisan parity to defending the Constitution and civil liberties. But GayPatriot misses the fact that the Republican Party escalated its attacks on the Constitution and the rights of gay and lesbian families in the 2004 Presidential elections.

One need look no further than the disgraceful pandering by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in places like Arkansas, North Carolina, West Virginia, the stage of the 2004 RNC Convention, the 2004 RNC platform, and by people like President Bush, the chair of the RNC, the Vice President's wife, and by Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate (Delay, Santorum), and the overtly regressive policies (here, here, and here) of the Bush Adminstration's first term. Let's not forget the antics of Republicans on the state level in Alabama, South Carolina, and other states too numerous to list.

Attacks on the civil liberties of vast numbers of the American people by pandering elected officials in the 2004 Presidential elections was overwhelmingly Republican. There were Democrats that engaged in equally divisive pandering (here, here and here), but they were publicly repudiated without partisan cover or apology. But the level of justified response from national civil rights organizations to Republican Party attacks was hardly undeserved, especially what came from LCR leaders themselves. National gay and lesbian civil rights groups failed to mobilize the vote and the conscience of America's common sense in 2004, that's for sure.

GayPatriot and other gay Republicans should view LCR leadership as having the guts during the 2004 Presidential elections not to give President Bush and the Republican Party the free ride many drunken ideologues granted on several levels. Let's not kid ourselves into believing the Republican Party doesn't need a lot of help.

also read: The Malcontent