For us to agree on everything would be dysfunctional.” Nor, he said, should everyone have to agree with everything in the party’s platform. Republican “core values,” he said, like “less taxes, less government and personal responsibility. Maryland Republican Party Chairman John Kane also attended with his wife, Mary, basking momentarily in the media spotlight and speaking in support of party “outreach” to gay and lesbian members. The controversy simmered beneath the surface of Log Cabin’s “Big Tent” event on Sunday, which featured speeches by high-profile Republican moderates, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Massachusetts Gov. We need to move from the right to the middle.” Greenawalt, a lifelong Republican who grew up in a conservative family in Towson, said such intolerance is “damaging to the party and damaging to (gays and lesbians). Instead, the committee passed a strongly worded statement not only supporting a constitutional ban on gay marriage, but opposing any legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, such as civil unions or domestic partner benefits. Michael Steele.Īt the same time, Greenawalt and other Log Cabin Republicans are charging that the party’s platform has been “hijacked by the radical right.” The organization had been closely monitoring the platform committee, which last week rejected a moderate “unity” plank calling for a more tolerant approach to issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. The party’s prime-time lineup is also packed with moderates, such as New York Gov. Just how inclusive the Republicans are, or want to be, has become a point of contention as party members gathered in New York for the 2004 national convention that will renominate President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.Īccording to the Log Cabin Republicans, the national organization of lesbian and gay GOP members, an estimated 40 to 50 of the 4,853 delegates are openly lesbian or gay. The 25-year-old Baltimore resident joined lesbian and gay Republicans from across the country over the weekend in New York City to support an “inclusive party.” I want to wish everyone a happy-and maybe a little defiant-Pride Month.NEW YORK – Ryan Greenawalt sees no contradiction in being a gay Republican. Acts like coming out at work, sharing your preferred pronouns, making a donation, and yes, even planning a wedding. Thousands of individual moments of personal bravery. But the big acts are the consequence of many, many small acts of defiance. When we think about the movement, we often think of big acts of defiance, like the Stonewall Riots, Harvey Milk’s election, AIDS advocacy, and Supreme Court cases. But Pride-the movement, not the corporate holiday-was built on acts of defiance. In the face of it all, wedding planning anxiety can seem almost trivial. The sickening “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida effectively erases LGBTQ people from classroom settings, a move which will likely only further isolate LGBTQ children who face higher rates of suicide than their peers. Gay men are still effectively prohibited from donating blood by the federal government, even now during a national blood shortage. For example, Pennsylvania still allows for the use of a gay or trans panic defense in criminal cases. Even with the protections afforded by these cases, LGBTQ people still face discrimination at the state and federal level. Marriage equality is not the beginning and end of LGBTQ rights. Wade swipes at some of these cases, igniting fears that existing LGBTQ rights may be in the Court’s crosshairs. Further, Justice Alito’s recently leaked draft Dobbs opinion that would overturn Roe v. Slotting neatly between the tent pole summer holidays of Memorial Day and Independence Day, one might be tempted to believe that queer America has achieved some sort of immutable victory in the fight for equality.Īnd yet, despite all of this progress, not to mention years of legal battles- Obergefell, Windsor, Lawrence, Romer-full equality remains elusive. National brands, including retailers, banks, and tech companies, have embraced Pride month as part of the annual cycle of holidays and marketing campaigns. For example, a 2021 Gallup Poll shows that 70% of Americans believe that same-sex couples should be entitled to legally protected marriage rights. Public opinion on LGBTQ rights has shifted during recent years. The Supreme Court majority is methodically laying the groundwork to unravel decades of hard-won civil rights battles, stare decisis be damned. But a new anxiety now hangs over my own wedding planning: legal impossibility. Planning a wedding is stressful, especially in our semi-post-COVID world, where the specter of another surge of illness still looms over any large event.