Not A Platform To Stand On

The Republican National Committee has just finished their platform and if you are LGBT this is not good news, they want to roll back all the civil rights gains that we have made.

Full GOP Platform Committee Approves Amendment Defining Marriage as 'Union of One Man and One Woman'
Republican National Committee Take Giant Step Backwards on LGBT Civil Rights
The New Civil Rights Movement
By David Badash
July 11, 2016

The full 2016 Republican Platform Committee has just passed an amendment redefining marriage as only the union of a man and a woman. The RNC platform committee is meeting this week in Cleveland, and earlier Monday a subcommittee expected to vote to make marriage a states' rights issue opted instead to keep its longstanding call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Just now, the full platform committee voted to include a platform making marriage the union of one man and one woman, only.

And that wasn’t the only thing that they are against,

Earlier Monday morning subcommittees voted for amendments that call for to the Bible being taught in schools, for transgender people to use the restroom of the gender they were assigned at birth, voted to keep a call for a ban on same-sex marriage in their 2016 national platform, and voted to support anti-LGBT conversion therapy.

Let’s throw out the First Amendment and have a state sponsored religion not just of any old religion but of the extreme conservative Christians. Let’s throw out years court rulings that has established gender identity and expression is cover under Title VII and Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause hey we are just going to ignore that pesky old thing, heck what does the Supreme Court know about the Constitution. And what do 64,000 therapists know? The 200 member American College of Pediatricians says conversion therapy works, a little electroconvulsive therapy goes a long way to make a person straight, one zap and they will agree to anything.

So who is behind this anti-LGBT Republican platform? Why it is none other than Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council an organization that has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Tony Perkins Wants The GOP To Endorse Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy
Right Wing Watch
Submitted by Brian Tashman
7/11/201

Earlier today, the platform committee of the Republican National Convention considered a number of anti-LGBT resolutions.

Tony Perkins of the far-right Family Research Council, who is serving as an RNC delegate from Louisiana, reportedly proposed an amendment calling for the endorsement of ex-gay “conversion therapy.” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus met with him about the amendment and, according to Time’s Zeke Miller, told him that he missed the deadline but “can bring it up on the floor”…

 I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he had a hand in the other anti-LGBT planks.

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While we are on Republican politics…

Caitlyn Jenner Takes Half-Step Toward RNC Appearance
The Advocate
By Neal Broverman
July 9, 2016

Caitlyn Jenner isn't wavering in her support for Republicans; she just booked an appearance in Cleveland, the site of the Republican National Convention, two days after the confab begins on July 18.

Jenner will appear at a "Big Tent Brunch" hosted by groups like Equality Ohio and socially-liberal conservatives, including the American Unity Fund and the Log Cabin Republicans, the latter being an LGBT GOP organization. Former talk show host Montell Williams, a Republican LGBT rights supporter, will introduce Jenner at the event, which will call for the party to embrace queer rights in its new platform.

Jenner, once an avid supporter of antigay, anti-trans Texas senator/failed Republican presidential nominee Ted Cruz, recently expressed admiration for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Jenner said she believes Trump is "very much for women" — something that Rosie O'Donnell and even Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly may find laughable — and an opponent of North Carolina's House Bill 2, which struck down gay rights laws in the state and mandated which public restrooms transgender people can use; Trump recently defended HB2.

Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?

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And on the other side…

Dem platform hailed as ‘most LGBTQ-inclusive’ in history
The Washington Blade
By Chris Johnson
July 6, 2016


Advocates are hailing the draft 2016 Democratic Party platform as the most LGBT-inclusive in history for its unprecedented support for LGBT rights.

Although the draft document calls for passage of federal comprehensive LGBT rights legislation, it does not explicitly endorse the Equality Act.

An entire section devoted to LGBT rights is included in the proposed platform, which was unveiled late last week and no fewer than 35 times invokes the name of Donald Trump to denounce him as a bigot who’d be disastrous in the White House. At no time is Hillary Clinton named.

The section on LGBT rights applauds last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage, saying it “recognized LGBT people — like every other American — have the right to marry the person they love.” (In 2012, Democrats for the first-time endorsed marriage equality in the platform largely as a result of a campaign spearheaded by the now-closed LGBT group Freedom to Marry.)

But the plank says more is needed after the marriage decision, including passage of federal comprehensive LGBT rights legislation. In the 2012 platform, reference was made only to a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in employment.
[…]
On military service, the platform references “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the end of the transgender military ban, saying, “Our military is strongest when people of all races, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities are honored for their service to our country.” On civil rights, the platform says, “Democrats will always fight to end discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

Hmm… which platform recognizes the human rights of all people?