| Log Cabin Republicans | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | LCR |
| Motto | Inclusion Wins |
| Type | Gay Conservatives |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C.[1] |
| Region served | United States |
| Executive Director | R. Clarke Cooper |
| Affiliations | Republican Party (United States) |
| Website | LogCabin.org |
The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians in the United States with state chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C. The group's constituency supports the Republican Party and advocates for the rights of gay and lesbian Americans.[2][3]
LCR claims to be the only Republican organization dedicated to representing the interests of LGBT Americans and their allies. The 30-year old organization has state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time office in Washington, DC, a federal political action committee and state political action committees.[4]
In May 2010, the National Board of Directors named R. Clarke Cooper as the organization's new Executive Director.[5][6] Cooper also serves as President of the Liberty Education Forum, a non-partisan educational foundation that is associated with LCR that informs conservatives and people of faith about issues affecting gay and lesbian Americans. Cooper is a veteran of the George W. Bush Administration. He last served as a Counselor at the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) for U.N. management and reform where advocated for transparency, accountability and reform of the UN. Prior to Cooper, Patrick Sammon led the organizations on an interim basis. Previous leaders of the group have been its founding Executive Director, Richard L. Tafel (October 1993 to January 1, 2003), and his successor, Patrick Guerriero (January 1, 2003 to September 2006).
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The name of the organization is a reference to the first Republican President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a log cabin.[7] Many of the persons involved in Log Cabin Republicans are also involved in The Liberty Education Forum,[8] a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization.
Log Cabin Republicans was founded in 1977 in California as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching in public schools.[9] The California organization had initially popularized the "Log Cabin Republicans" name, so the national organization adopted the name as well.
According to their website, the California group initially proposed to name themselves Lincoln Club, but found that name was already in use by another California Republican organization.[7][9] Thus, an alternative name was chosen that still evoked the memory of President Lincoln: Log Cabin Republicans.
Their website further states, "The GOP rose to power because it embraced the ideals of equality imagined by our nation's founding fathers and ensured by our Constitution. When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a 'new birth of freedom,' was indeed given to our country. Now, more than 150 years later, the GOP has another chance to choose fairness over discrimination, equality over bigotry, hope over fear, and freedom over oppression."
The organization originally featured a portrait of Lincoln on its website and other publicity material. They invoke Lincoln's name, image and birth site ostensibly to emphasize the Republican party's history of fighting for liberty and equality.
The 1992 Log Cabin Republican convention was held in Spring, Texas, a Houston exurb. It was the first time LCR had such a large presence of the major national press at a convention. LCR also had two open delegates: Martin K. Keller and Frank N. Ricchiazzi. Both delegates were appointed by Governor of California Pete Wilson. The big issue was whether or not LCR would endorse the re-election of President George H. W. Bush. The group voted to deny that endorsement, based on homophobic decisions made during the 1992 Republican National Convention that preceded it in Houston.
In August 1995, the group gained significant national attention when the campaign of Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, returned the LCR's $1,000 campaign contribution. The campaign returned the contribution after openly lesbian columnist, Deb Price, of the Detroit News, asked about it after she saw it on a public report from the Federal Elections Commission. The campaign sent a written statement to Price saying that Dole was in "100% disagreement with the agenda of the Log Cabin Republicans."[10]
The story took on prominence in the media when it was revealed before it was returned, the finance office of the campaign had solicited the contribution from LCR. At the event where it was given, Dole had personally spoken with LCR's then-executive director, Rich Tafel, about the group and about AIDS legislation it was promoting in the Senate. Weeks earlier, Dole agreed to co-sponsor the legislation after a meeting with Tafel at the campaign's headquarters.[11] It resulted in a front-page story in The New York Times, penned by Richard L. Berke, then-chief political reporter for the daily.[12]
As reporters, including Berke, were seeking confirmation of the story before it broke, Dole's finance chairman, John Moran, asked Tafel not to speak to the press and that Tafel's "steadfastness and statesmanship at this moment will be handsomely appreciated in the long run by the campaign." Tafel refused.[13]
Leading pundits accused Dole of being a "flip-flopper and a hypocrite."[14] Editorials ran in major newspapers, including the Washington Post, The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Times of London, condemning Dole's action, joined by radio commentators Rush Limbaugh and Don Imus.[15][16] Under the pressure, Dole admitted during an October 1995 press briefing on Capitol Hill that he regretted the decision to return the check, and that his campaign was responsible for it without consulting him.[17] "I think if they'd have consulted me, we wouldn't have done that, wouldn't have returned it," Dole said.[18] In fact, Dole was privately angered by the action when he first learned of it but chose to defend his campaign manager for fear of facing the same problems he had second-guessing his staff in his failed 1988 bid. Dole later told Washington Post editor and author Bob Woodward that the LCR episode was a "mistake" because the decision to return the check "gets into Bob Dole the person. It's not so much about Bob Dole the candidate. It's the person. Is he tolerant? Does he tolerate different views? Tolerate someone with a different lifestyle?" He added, "This is basic, this is what people ought to know about you. Are you going to just do this because it sounds good politically?"[19]
LCR's leadership met with Dole's coalitions manager to discuss an endorsement after Dole's reversal.[20] Among various items, Tafel demanded there be no gay bashing in the speeches from the podium of the 1996 Republican National Convention, nor any anti-homosexual signs on the convention floor, in stark contrast to the previous party convention in 1992. He also wanted to see a gay person address the convention and a public request from Dole's campaign for the LCR nod.[21] On the closing night of the Convention, Stephen Fong, then-president of the San Francisco chapter, spoke at the dais as part of a series of speeches from "mainstreet Americans," but was not publicly identified as gay.[22] Nevertheless, his presence on the podium for the organization and for the gay and lesbian community "was something that would have been unimaginable four years earlier," Tafel later wrote.[22] Two days later, Dole spokesperson Christina Martin told a reporter that the campaign "welcomed the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans."[22] LCR voted to endorse Dole for President, and then-Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour approved the use of the RNC's press briefing room for Tafel, LCR's convention delegates and officers of its national board to announce their decision.[22]
Later in the campaign, Tafel met with Dole's chief aide Sheila Burke, and the remaining demands LCR made for their endorsement were met. In a statement released by LCR, and confirmed to reporters by the campaign, Dole had pledged to maintain an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal workforce and full funding for AIDS programs.[22] Dole would go on to win 23% of the gay and lesbian vote but would lose the election to Bill Clinton.[23]
In September 2008, the group voted to endorse the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket in the 2008 presidential election. LCR President Patrick Sammon said the most important reason for their support was McCain's opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.[24]
In April 2009, LCR experienced a split in their leadership and constituency when a faction of LCR staff withdrew and formed the more conservative organization GOProud.[25]
The LCR stresses its loyalty to the Republican Party: "We are loyal Republicans," its website says. "We believe in low taxes, limited government, strong defense, free markets, personal responsibility, and individual liberty. LCR represents an important part of the American family—taxpaying, hard working people who proudly believe in this nation's greatness."[26] They take no position on abortion.
But LCR dissents from socially conservative Republican views on matters relating to gay and lesbian rights. "We also believe all Americans have the right to liberty, freedom, and equality," it says. "Log Cabin stands up against those who preach hatred and intolerance. We stand up for the idea that all Americans deserve to be treated equally—regardless of their sexual orientation."[26]
Since 1977, LCR has expanded across the United States and has 43 chapters, representing 26 states and the District of Columbia.[27] Log Cabin has thousands of members nationwide and a staff of registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C. In addition to this, the Log Cabin Republicans hold an annual convention in different cities around the country, and raise funds which are donated to Republican officeholders and candidates, in local, state and federal races, who are sympathetic to LGBT issues. The archives of the Log Cabin Republicans are held within the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Minnesota under Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.
The California Log Cabin Republicans supported Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his term. Although he vetoed a controversial bill in 2005 that would allow same-sex marriage (which would have been the first such legislatively enacted law in the US), he has signed 21 other LGBT progressive bills into law. In fact, according to official records, the Log Cabin Republicans PAC raised $10,000 for "Californians for Schwarzenegger" in 2006.[28]
Log Cabin Republicans were only one of two Republican organizations that were involved as sponsors for Schwarzenegger's 2007 inauguration according to the program brochure.[29]
In late February, 2008, Huffington Post blogger Ryan J. Davis flew out to Hollywood to join a coalition of gay and lesbian activists led by Log Cabin Republican leaders to lobby Governor Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver to publicly oppose the Family Research Council's Anti-Gay Marriage initiative.[30] One of the group's main organizers, Kevin Norte, wrote on the California LCR blog, "Someone had to fire the first shot. We did. We had some powerhouses there and the message was clear. We were not going away."[31]
The LCR coalition[32] had a broad base, including Matt Foreman, Executive Director of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Damon Romine, Entertainment Media Director of GLAAD; Geoff Kors, Executive Director of Equality California; Charles Robbins, Executive Director of The Trevor Project; John Duran, President of Equality California and Mayor of West Hollywood; Charles T. Moran, Chapter President of LCR Los Angeles; James Vaughn, Director of LCR California; and financial sponsors Don Norte of the Governor's Committee on Employment for People With Disabilities, and Kevin Norte, a member of the Board of Directors of the LCR California PAC.[33]
On April 11, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger came out officially against the Initiative at LCR's National Convention.[34]
After the California Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex marriages on May 15, 2008, LCR's Kevin Norte wrote an opinion piece in the Metropolitan News-Enterprise of Los Angeles on May 21, 2008 (also posted on the group's blog) that called the initiative to stop same-sex marriages into question. Norte questioned whether the California Supreme Court's ruling on the same-sex marriage in California cases, which found several constitutional rights under the California Constitution to permit such marriages and that it changed the dynamics of the process because he argued that it was originally an initiative and the signature collection process informed voters that the initiative would not change current law.[35] The facts and circumstances, he claimed, were different because the Court recognized the right to marry as a right to privacy in marrying the person of one's choice, a right to free speech, a fundamental right to marry, and equal protection. He pondered whether those constitutional rights could be simply abolished by a voter initiative or should the amendment be removed because a constitutional convention would have to be held to remove fundamental rights.[36]
The legal analyst explored the topic further in another expanded article in the Met-News on June 17, 2008 (again also posted on the group's blog), the first full day same-sex marriage became legal in California. The legal education piece was entitled, "Election Law: How One Legally Might Remove a Ballot Initiative Prior to an Election." Norte pointed out that the language of the initiative was flawed and out-dated due to recent events. The legal analyst concluded that one could legitimately argue that the Court order the "California Secretary of State, to remove the proposed 'Limit on Marriage' Constitutional Amendment Initiative [Proposition 8] from the November, 2008 ballot."[37]
On June 20, 2008, the pro-same-sex marriage parties file a Writ of Mandate in the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.[38] San Francisco Chronicle reporter Bob Elko reported that the coalition filed a writ to seek removal of the initiative. The grounds stated in the writ petition were similar to those discussed in both the May 21, 2008 and June 17, 2008 articles authored by Norte, but failed to reference the official reporter pages of the case.[39] Norte's second article contained the proper citations.[37]
A lawsuit filed by LCR in federal court challenging the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" (DADT) policy, which excludes homosexuals from openly serving in the U. S. military, went to trial on July 13, 2010, presided by Judge Virginia Phillips. LCR argued that the policy violates the rights of homosexual military members to free speech, due process and open association.[40] The government argued that DADT was necessary to advance a legitimate governmental interest.[41] LCR introduced several admissions by President Barack Obama, including that DADT "doesn’t contribute to our national security," "weakens our national security," and that reversing DADT is "essential for our national security". Rather than address plaintiff's claims or bring evidence to support their own claims of national interest, the government relied exclusively on the policy's 1993 legislative history.[42]
On September 9, 2010, Phillips ruled in favor of plaintiffs, finding that DADT violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution.[43][44]
After another year of legal wrangling, on September 29, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the district court's decision, ruling that the legislative repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" in December 2010 rendered the case moot. The dismissal left the lower court ruling without value as precedent.[45]
Most socially conservative Republicans have distanced themselves from the group; however, in 2004, LCR made allies with other moderate GOP groups such as Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman's It's My Party Too, Ann Stone's Republicans for Choice, The Republican Majority for Choice, The Wish List, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and The Republican Main Street Partnership.[46] In the last several years, these groups united to do political combat with social conservatives to re-assert the role of centrists and traditional conservatives in the Republican party. Christine Todd Whitman spoke at the LCR convention in 2005 and appeared at an LCR event in Cincinnati in 2006.[47]