Will the Republican Victories Result in More Political Gay Bashing?
On November 4, 2010, the Republican Party successfully became the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The election closed the gap between the parties in the U.S. Senate and increased Republican numbers in the Texas House from a nearly balanced 77 Republicans and 73 Democrats to 100 Republicans and 50 Democrats. This put an end to Democratic rule in the U.S. House and may have serious consequences for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Texans.
You may recall that pesky Texas GOP Platform from 2008, or perhaps the very similar one from this year which was covered in detail in Ignite’s November issue (Political Fire, Your Guide for November 2, Elena Guajardo). The Official Republican Platform of the Texas GOP (a/k/a Gay Oppression Party) all but declared war on LBGT people directly attacking “homosexuality” no less than 13 times in 25 pages.
Not only did the Platform call for the reinstatement of the “Homosexual Conduct Law” which banned consensual sexual relationships between people of the same sex, but it also declared that homosexuality:
- tears at the fabric of society
- contributes to the breakdown of the family unit
- leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases
- 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.
In spite of all that degrading language used to attack LGBT people, exit polling conducted by the major television networks showed that 31 percent of people who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual voted for Republicans, a 22 percent increase from 2008. No statistics were provided for those identifying as transgender.
The Platform wasn’t the first (or last) time that Texas Republican lawmakers attacked our families. For example, after Obama’s Department of Justice lost a Federal case that challenged the constitutionality of The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Lamar Smith, a San Antonio Republican whose district extends north and west of the city, declared that the DOJ provided a halfhearted defense of the law because of Obama’s belief that parts of it are unconstitutional. In legal briefs filed by Smith, he argued that, “It is not the role of the courts to redefine (marriage) and impose it on American society. The people alone, through their elected representatives, have that role and responsibility.”
There was also this comment from Louie Gohmert, another Texas Republican returning to Congress, “When a nation begins to say that this, that the relationship between two men and two women sexually is normal, they're normally very close to the end of their existence.”
It’s also no secret that Senator John Cornyn wants a ban on same-sex marriage forever added to the U.S. Constitution. Regardless of wars, economic struggles, homelessness and violent crimes, Texas Republican law makers have historically found time to gay bash. However, Chuck Smith, deputy director for Equality Texas, offered a different view, stating, “These legislators are going to be too busy trying to balance the budget. Gay bashing is not going to rise to the level of anyone’s top priority.”
Rob Schlein, president of Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas, an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender GOPers, felt that it was too early, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, to declare that the Republicans are so anti-gay: It’s a little early to be prognosticating about what’s going to happen. I would recommend that these activists not be so quick to project that all these Republicans are so anti-gay. You don’t know that. Just take a deep breath and deal with the landscape as it exists today. Get your issues together, find out who can stand behind them, and move ahead with them one at a time.
Barney Frank, the openly gay senator from Massachusetts, didn’t go so far as to credit the Republicans as not being as anti-gay as we might think, but he did offer a more realistic and arguably balanced view of the new legislative session, “Next year there’s no chance of anything happening [regarding pro-LGBT legislation]. There’s zero chance. It will be a status quo. They don’t have the votes to hurt us but we don’t have the votes to advance anything in the cause.”
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