In an opinion piece published Thursday by Townhall, Log Cabin Republicans President Ross Hemminger said that “after significant discussion with our membership,” the board of directors voted to “refine Log Cabin Republicans’ national advocacy focus to concentrate specifically on issues of sexual orientation and conservative values.”
“In other words, we are an LGB advocacy organization, as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be,” Hemminger wrote.
“This decision does not change who can belong to Log Cabin Republicans. Membership remains open to all conservatives,” he continued.
“We welcome all of our allies in this mission and as participants in our organization. Our chapters will continue to welcome all allies and will operate in ways that best serve their membership. This decision reaffirms our core mission.”
Hemminger said the group, founded in 1977, expanded its advocacy to include transgender Americans in 2015 “out of a belief that all adults should be allowed to pursue their own happiness, free of government interference, as long as it did not impede on the inalienable rights of others.”
“At the time, we did not believe that we would find ourselves where we are today,” Hemminger wrote. “The transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all — nearly all of their efforts and those of their aligned special interest groups focus on minors.
“They push schools to teach radical gender ideology; they want biological men in women’s sports regardless of the consequences; perhaps most offensively, they support gender reassignment treatments for minors, often without the knowledge or consent of the parents, knowing full well these treatments are mostly irreversible.”
Hemminger said public support for gay rights, including same-sex marriage, “is eroding.”
“Why? Because many voters today weren’t alive or cognizant of the politics of gay marriage winding its way through the courts and gaining ground in public opinion,” Hemminger wrote.
“Their view of the gay community is based on today’s radical transgender activists with their unnecessary and discomfiting focus on America’s youth.”
Log Cabin Republicans has chapters in 41 states and Washington, D.C., and describes itself as the nation’s largest and oldest organization serving gay conservatives, according to its website.
“Issues of sexual orientation — marriage, adoption, military service, nondiscrimination rooted in equal treatment, and religious liberty protections applied fairly — are grounded in constitutional clarity,” Hemminger wrote.
“They align directly with the Republican commitment to limited government and equal protection under the law. When we remain focused on those principles, we win,” he continued.
“That is the strategy that guaranteed us our rights. And that is the strategy we are focused on for the future,” Hemminger wrote.
“Returning to our roots is a recommitment to the disciplined advocacy that has gotten us this far. We were founded on principle, and we move forward with clarity, strength, and the confidence that conservative values — properly applied — protect the liberty of every American.”
