We really think the political parties in this country got their mascots mixed up and the GOP should be the jackass: The Republican Party of Texas has put forth its official platform and, as expected, it’s the house that hate built—with a whole wing devoted to anti-gay rhetoric.
The GOP Longhorns aver that homosexuality “tears at the fabric of society” and “is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God.” The text goes on to oppose ENDA and marriage equality, support DOMA, and require protection (if not canonization) of anyone who discriminates against gay people for basically any reason.
Joe My God has a lovely chunk of this treatise:
HOMOSEXUALITY: We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle, in public policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values.
EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT (ENDA): We oppose this act through which the federal government would coerce religious business owners and employees to violate their own beliefs and principles by affirming what they consider to be sinful and sexually immoral behavior.
DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT: We support the enforcement of the State and Federal Defense
of Marriage Act by state and federal officials respectively, and oppose creation, recognition and benefits for
partnerships outside of marriage that are being provided by some political subdivisions.FAMILY AND DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE: We support the definition of marriage as a God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only between a natural man and a natural woman, which is the foundational unit of a healthy society, and we oppose the assault on marriage by judicial activists. We call on the President and Congress to take immediate action to defend the sanctity of marriage.
We are resolute that Congress exercise authority under the United States Constitution, and pass legislation withholding jurisdiction from the Federal Courts in cases involving family law, especially any changes in the definition of marriage. We further call on Congress to pass and the state legislatures to ratify a marriage amendment declaring that marriage in the United States shall consist of and be recognized only as the union of a natural man and a natural woman.
Neither the United States nor any state shall recognize or grant to any unmarried person the legal rights or status of a spouse. We oppose the recognition of and granting of benefits to people who represent themselves as domestic partners without being legally married.
Other topics that might interest you:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
DIVORCE: We urge the Legislature to rescind no-fault divorce laws. We support Covenant Marriage.
PORN: We encourage the enforcement of laws regarding all forms of pornography, because
pornography is detrimental to the fabric of society.PARENTING: We believe that parental rights, authority and responsibilities are inherent and protected by the United States Constitution. Local, state, or federal laws, regulations, or policies shall not be enacted that limit parental rights in the rearing of both biological and adopted children.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS: We unequivocally oppose the United States Senate’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
EDUCATION: We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical-thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority
SEX ED: We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage.
If you’ve got a strong constitution, try reading the entire thing. Preferably before lunch.
Oddly enough for the head of such a gung-ho family-values brigade, State Party Chair Steve Munisteri is divorced. (Hope that wasn’t one of those nasty no-fault divorces, Steve.) And, despite the fact that the platform is rife with mandates for “parents’ rights” he and the misses never had any children. Hmm, funny that.
Mike in Asheville
Can’t we just sell Texas to China, be rid of these vile anti-Americans and settle our national debt problems all at once?
Spike
Hardly a surprise given that idiot GW Bush, the worst president ever, came from this state.
Charli
Well well well… Lookie who lives in Texas and able to cast MY vote!!!
Bahahaha and I have a big mouth in order to educate anyone that’ll listen!!
Can’t wait to vote these bigots outta office!
Texas is HUGE and there is ALOT of homo’s here!!!
Ogre Magi
@Mike in Asheville: What did China do to deserve Texas?
Nicholas
@Ogre Magi: Ever heard of Tibet?
1equalityUSA
Some “fabrics of society” need to be torn.
Bob
And how many LGBT Texans will still vote Republican?
Charli
@Bob: @Bob:
Haven’t met 1 yet!! My city is ran by a lesbian Mayor!!In a city of over 5 million people , she’s doing a fine job! And our economy is the strongest in the nation next to N.D. The Repubs tried their best to keep her out N lost!! So I keep praying she’ll stay put!!!
Daez
Equality of All Citizens – We deplore all discrimination. We also deplore forced sensitivity training and urge repeal of any mandate requiring it. We urge immediate repeal of the Hate Crimes Law. Until the Hate Crimes Law is totally repealed, we urge the Legislature to immediately remove the education curriculum mandate and the sexual orientation category in said Law.
—
I think that tells you all you need to know about how fucked up these people really are.
Charli
Now when she knocks Perry out of his seat, we’ll b N business!! 🙂
Daez
@Spike: Actually, if you read the whole thing it is kind of surprising since many of the things that originated with GWB and that he championed they are now suddenly against.
1equalityUSA
It’s mystifying how these men get elected into office. Does the majority of the state feel as they do? Why don’t Texans speak out against this rhetoric? It’s so over the top. Self-entitled, nouveau riche hicks are making it difficult for everyone in the state to be seen as part of the 21st century. It’s infuriating. I cannot believe they aren’t ridiculed for these antics.
When Clayton Williams likened bad weather to rape and said, “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” it cost him the win against Ann Richards. Even John McnumbnutsCain avoided using this turd in a fund raiser in 2008, due to this controversial remark made back in 1990. Where’s the starch, Texas? Why are you not speaking out against these men and laughing them out of office?
Daez
@1equalityUSA: The truth is that most people in Texas (and elsewhere) will never read this document and will never follow the true platform of the party. Most people will see/hear adds on the television/internet/radio and make their decisions based solely on those adds. The vast majority of the voters in this country do not bother to get educated what-so-ever. Hell, I’m willing to bet the vast majority do not even bother to read the issues on the ballot and instead just vote based on what others tell them and advertising.
Charli
@1equalityUSA:
Simply put: people are just not educated on HOW to go about it. This is what I’ve been seeing in the LGBT community across the nation: I was down in Wilton Manor ( Ft Lauderdale) for one example. I went into “Rosie’s” and I was handing out flyers on “Marriage Equality” and was ran out of there and was told I was bothering their customers! Really? Everyone in there was Gay! Hello? So it seems that most people WANT their freedom and rights, but can’t be bothered with helping. I suppose if the bars would put up ” ticker” signs in their establishments showing folks what, and how to go about it, and also where NOT to spend their gay $ would help. The ticker could name every politician inTx that is voting against them and why!But these places don’t do enough knowing that ALL of their clientele are gay and would be a tremendous effort on their part.But again I’m only one person and can’t do it all.
We need to come together and Unite some how some way!!
The Real Mike in Asheville
@Ogre Magi: Thanks, now I have to clean up the coffee I spewed out of my nose laughing at your response. Thanks for the good laugh, cheers.
Spike
@Daez: And you point was? Or are you just defending the Texas GOP Platform?
jim
Is anybody shocked????
Texas is full of rednecks and mexicans and they are both hostile to gays
Charli
@Spike:
Are you serious man? If this is your prejudice opinion, you are just dead weight in our fight!
Get real man! Houston is a melting pot with people from all over this country coming here to
to make a better living for themselves!! You sound like a narrow minded lil twit!
Mr. Z
@jim: You sound pretty redneck-y yourself.
Nat
Dear Queerty,
Don’t denigrate the Lord of the Harvest with associations to the Texas Republican Party.
Name (required)
Teaching abstinence in Sex Ed. If there were still such a thing as Driver’s Ed, they teach kids NOT to drive.
Hyhybt
The best one is their coming right out and saying they’re opposed to critical thinking skills.
Scribe37
More reasons never to step foot in this state and give them my hard earned vacation money!
Jakey
Well, that’s depressing to see. On the other hand, it’s fun to read this in the voice of the anti-gay character Maria Bamford played on that “Sarah Silverman Program” episode.
Frances
say tho they keeping saying Christian none act like christ like
lubbockgaymale
Trust me, as a Texan I’ve spent many an hour arguing with these neo-conservative, ‘christian’ bigots. They just don’t get it! I’m old enough to remember that the arguments they’re making against GLBTs are the same arguments their parents used in the 1950s against ‘those blacks’ (but that’s not the word they used, of course). A lot of them just need someone to look down on, unfortunately, and ‘the faggots and queers’ are the new targets.
Danny
Everyone knows that politicians who violate the human rights of millions of people always win and live happy lives for them and theirs – just look at what happened to Hitler and Franco and… err.. wait I guess that isn’t their fate.
Grant West
Hard to believe the GOP would actually put this crap in print. It never ceases to amaze me how they continue to get elected, but then, I live in NC. Jessie Helms was voted back to Washington over and over. 60% of the people polled said they voted for him because they knew where he stood on the “issues”!!! Here was a confessed racist, bigot, woman-hater, LGBT-hater… hands down, they voted for this moron over and over. Says lots about rural North Carolina, land of Amendment 1 to protect the sanctity of marriage. What B.S. Too bad we can’t sell the rural counties of NC to China… but then they wouldn’t know what to do with such backward, Bible-thumping bumpkins.
Grant West
I also published a book about the religious right getting control of the government: AD2040: Clear and Present Danger, Triumph of the Religious Right. Some of you may find it interesting.
Daniel S
“Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans” majority of Texans my big fat gay Texan ass. Believe me when I say Republicans may be in charge in Texas for the time being but they don’t represent Texans.
marc conder
Ok, y’all hold up..This is a party platform, designed to fill pages of stuff to meet every conceivable opinion from every corner of this state. I am here to Tell you this bunch of hooey is not Texas.
This gay Texan has been out since I was 15, my family, my friends, my church all love me for what I am, not what some platform tells em I am supposed to be. I must also add I am a conservative man by nature, and a member of the Log Cabin republicans which causes great concern by less open minded gay folks. I am either viewed as a self hating gay by association, or a misled fool, who just needs to be re-educated. No one ever said gays had the right of everything, no more then str8 republican platform writers.
Each of us grows up, makes choices good for ourselves. I support equal rights for all Americans, never special rights, nor extra rights. Just consider me another gay face, one of about 4% of the population. In Texas, thats 1,200,000 people approximately. God bless us all!
Oh well
@marc conder, when you vote for these people, you are supporting their platform. You must be in some serious denial to be able to live with yourself, given the harm you are causing to other gay people.
Alexi3
This really is over the top, even for GOP, in Texas. I had always said I would never live in Texas and then, for professional reasons, ended up in Dallas for 20 years. I remember how shocked I was when I realized how large the gay population is in Dallas. I never felt any pressure to hide my sexuality in the city. However, Texas is large, and once you leave cities like Dallas, Houston or Austin you run into this type of mentality rather quickly. Even just the short trip from Dallas to Fort Worth makes you feel like you’ve entered another world, although Fort Worth has a sizeable gay population it’s much less open about it than in Dallas. I think what makes for a more liberal attitude in Dallas, Houston and Austin in the large influx of professionals and students from other parts of the country.
James M. Martin
Not to forget that terribly hurtful, downright evil convention speech given by Pat Buchanan, I think in the year he ran for the top job in D.C. I almost vomited. He made me feel small and worthless. And this party has not changed a bit in all those years. Remember, when he ran political campaigns in Texas, both for George W. Bush and others, Karl Rove thought nothing of playing the H card against other pols. He would start rumors going around that so and so was one of “them.” He was far more aggressive than his predecessor dirty trickster, who probably said to vote for his guy since the other guy had a sister who was a thespian.
B
No. 4 · Ogre Magi wrote, “@Mike in Asheville: What did China do to deserve Texas?”
Probably something that occurred during the Ming Dynasty. It would have taken a country over 3500 years to do something bad enough to deserve Texas!
B
The Republican idea of sex education apparently is to tell adolescents to refrain from doing it while being too embarrassed to say what “it” actually is, hence the high teenage pregnancy rate in the Bible Belt.
Stephen
@ Mike in “Asheville”
Isn’t it a little like the pot calling the kettle black, North Carolinian? Yep, that’s what I thought.
Making up stuff is fun!
@Stephen: He’s not in North Carolina, he’s Asheville. Next you’ll be saying Austin is some redneck cowboy town, just because it’s in Texas.
jwrappaport
@marc conder: Who’s talking about special rights or a right of [sic] everything? It’s pretty simple as far as I understand it: substantive equality before the law. What this means is: (1) the right to marry a partner of the same sex and (2) freedom from discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment (both public and private).
I have no doubt that you agree with other important parts of the GOP platform in Texas, but regardless, those statements about LGBT people were not written in a vacuum or for idle reasons: it can reasonably be inferred that a majority of Texan republicans genuinely believe them. Your support of that party is an acknowledgement that those issues are subordinate to others, which is your right to believe, but which also no doubt strikes your fellow LGBTers as at best contrary to your self interest (i.e., irrational) and at worst a betrayal to their interests: you’re essentially saying that you are willing to be treated like a second-class citizen (and to the Texas GOP nothing less than a pariah) to satisfy your other interests, compelling though they may be.
Understandably, LGBTers and I can’t help but be puzzled (to put it gently) by this: regardless of their legitimacy, what good are the promises of the GOP (e.g., minimizing of economic coercion by the state, safety, security) when the party and its most prominent figures degrade you for who you are and seek to minimize your autonomy, personhood, and dignity on a regular and very public basis? The Dems aren’t perfect, but I’m fairly certain that they’re not about to label me and people I love and care about as “unacceptable” anytime soon.
Stephen
@Making up stuff is fun!
I live in Austin, and grew up in NC. Great town. So are San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. My point is that these f–kers don’t speak for all of us, just like the inbred hillbillies in the smoky mountains don’t speak for the citizens of Asheville and the research triangle.
Michael Moran
Death is a helpful hand to progress. These folks will eventually be buried, along with their ideology.
Lulu
@Mike in Asheville:
Spike, he came from Connecticut.
Erik
@marc conder: If you live in Texas, are gay and a member of the Republican Party, then this is YOUR party platform. You own it. You are responsible for it.
Personally, I would not be part of a political party overtly hostile to my very being.
Do I think you a fool? No, I think you’re weak. You won’t stand up and fight for yourself. Instead, you make excuses for the people trying to harm us.
Erik
@Stephen: The may not speak for all of you, but they do speak for most of you.
Or are you not aware the Republican Party controls every branch of the Texas government? They control the legislature, the Governor’s mansion, and all statewide offices.
Austin is a well known liberal enclave in a very conservative state. That party platform is not the exception in Texas — Austin is.
Stephen
@Erik
Yep, I know Austin is an exception. Kinda like Asheville.
Your point?
Hey Mike in Asheville, listening?
Danny
At least it removes all doubt about whether they are trying to commit genocide or not.
Hyhybt
@Erik: There comes a point where a state is so red that the only chance you have to affect things is to vote for the least harmful Republican in the primary.
(I remember when it was the other way around in the South…. but it’s been a long while now.)
EGO
I think it is the heat that affects some Texans. :>) Eventually even the Texas GOP will learn. My partner of 50 years and I have been married in Massachusetts for 8 years. We are both retired and I am a Navy veteran. We are living the American dream and people here in Massachusetts, both gay and straight are loving, fun people.
For those that talk about God saying this and that ought to talk to God themselves instead of mouthing what other people say God says including the people that wrote the bible who believed the world was flat.
Happy 4th of July!
Disgusted Gay American
Im sorry but IF you’re a Gay person and you’re voting GOP..you’re an ASSHOLE and TRAITOR – period! Wanna be republican,…….? WAIT til your party changes….til then, you’re a TRAITOR!
1equalityUSA
The pictures that Queerty scares up to accompany the articles are priceless.
On another point, Dear Queerty, I had to re-submit my name and email this morning. Why, I don’t know, but now I have this weird addition to my log on name. Is there any way you can remove the added on mole? “Person using similar name” needs to be snipped off like a wart, if you wouldn’t mind troubling yourselves. I don’t know why this addition bother me so. It just doesn’t feel like meeeeeeee!
Hyhybt
@1equalityUSA: That’s a benefit, not a curse. It’s not actually part of your name (notice the beginning of this post where the @ doesn’t include it). Because this site does not require registration to post, anybody can use any name they wish. This can cause problems when two people happen to pick the same name, especially if they do it deliberately. I believe it only affects individual threads; post on a new one and you won’t see it.
Did you, perhaps, clear your history, autofill information, or cookies, or switch browsers or computers entirely? That would certainly do it.
Alexi3
@marc conder: I agree and support your right to belong to any political party you choose. The truth is that when you support the Republican Party, as it is currently constituted and not only in Texas, you are supporting a political party that would deny you full and equal protection under the Law because you are a gay man. You have every right to do this. Many Jews voted for the National Socialist Party. When the Nazis came into power they very quickly denied Jews the right to vote, stripped away more and more of their rights until they were no longer considered full human beings (sound familiar) and you know the horrible outcome. You, like they, think it can’t happen in such a cultured country. Make no mistake should the Far Right ever gain power over all branches of government many “rights” you believe you hold will disappear. Vote for your own destruction; it’s your right. The problem is that you are putting all believers in individual freedom in jeapordy.
brentinpdx
@1equalityUSA: Religious zealots need to be torn from the fabric of society.
Ambrose
@Charli: Charli, the past participle of “run” is “run”: “My cit is run.” N and b are not used by anyone over the age of 17 with half an education, outside of text messages. Thanks for confirming the perception that our state is populated by uneducated idiots.
Ambrose
@Charli: Charli, the past participle of “run” is “run”: “My city is run.” N and b are not used by anyone over the age of 17 with half an education, outside of text messages. Thanks for confirming the perception that our state is populated by uneducated idiots.
Charli
@Ambrose:
However pudding: IF you’re a productive adult you spend less time on small talk with small people .
And that’s exactly what I’m doing with you precious. I apologize that I text in shorthand, so that I may get my point across, and then go on with my day darling. Id rather fight the cause and for the ” movement” than to exhaust myself with my fellow gay brother.
Why don’t you put that energy into helping ? Wouldn’t THAT make you feel better sweety?