By: D’Anne Witkowski*/Special to TRT—
The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) have refused to endorse Donald J. Trump for President. On the one hand, Good for them. I mean, LCR isn’t a group with especially high standards (they endorsed Romney, after all), so their refusal to endorse Trump is really saying something. But then again, don’t expect me to be impressed that you finally decided on Oct. 22 that Trump was a no-go for the Republican homos.
Look, Republicans are not inherently bad people. But the Republican party has been taken over by a right-wing fringe that not only has no place for LGBTQ people, but that actively fights against LGBTQ rights at every turn. So it has been hard over the years to watch LCR lick the boots of just about every candidate the GOP threw at them. It’s like watching an abusive relationship and you know that the person being abused has really complicated reasons for not leaving, but that doesn’t make it any easier to witness.
Even in their official statement announcing their lack of endorsement they can’t help but make excuses for Trump.
“Mr. Trump is perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party,” LCR states. “His unprecedented overtures to the ‘LGBT community’— a first for any major-party candidate in our nation’s history — are worthy of praise, and should serve as a clarion call to the GOP that the days of needing to toe an anti-LGBT line are now a thing of the past.”
Okay. First of all, Hillary Clinton was way out front on all the LGBTQ stuff. It seems like LCR is claiming that Trump deserves credit for acknowledging that the LGBTQ community exists and is worthy of more than derision. It’s literally the least he can do. But it is more than Republican presidential nominees have done in the past. So woo woo progress, I guess.
But a “clarion call to the GOP” that anti-gay is a thing of the past? Has LCR read the 2016 GOP platform? Because the GOP platform goes out of its way to shit on LGBTQ people.
“Our laws and our government’s regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society,” the platform reads. “For that reason … we do not accept the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states.”
Aww, isn’t that cute? Because the torn patchwork of marriage rights and laws was working out so well for everybody. Like when my wife and I got married in California and came home to Michigan as legal strangers again. Those were the times.
The platform also endorses the so-called First Amendment Defense Act, which makes it legal to discriminate so long as you’re doing it because the Bible told you so. And LCR does not like that Trump likes this at all.
The LCR statement continues, “Rhetoric alone regarding LGBT issues does not equate to doctrine. As Mr. Trump spoke positively about the LGBT community in the United States, he concurrently surrounded himself with senior advisors with a record of opposing LGBT equality, and committed himself to supporting legislation such as the so-called ‘First Amendment Defense Act’ that Log Cabin Republicans opposes.”
Ah, if only Trump didn’t have those gosh-darn anti-LGBT advisers he’d probably be the grand marshal in the NYC Pride parade.
To be honest, I feel a little bad calling Log Cabin Republicans “creeps,” because that’s not fair. It’s victim blaming, really. Trump is a creep, 100 percent. But that’s been obvious from the very beginning of this campaign. And that LCR seems to just now be figuring that out is further evidence that they need to demand better and believe that they deserve better
*D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and comedian living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBT politics for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
