MILWAUKEE — Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran explained his organization’s stance on divisive LGBTQ issues at the group’s big tent event outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
“As conservatives in the LGBT community, we are deeply concerned that ‘radical gender theory’ is being promoted ‘in the name of LGBT equality,'” Moran said in a video address after speaking at the event.
“The last three years have really been a watershed moment for these radical leftists who have aligned themselves with woke corporations, outdated academics and cultural elites who want to hijack our hard-won civil rights movement to advance their radical agenda,” he said.
The problem, Moran said, is that “as a result, Americans are seriously rethinking their support for LGBT equality,” with a Gallup poll last year showing that general, broad support for LGBTQ inclusion was declining for the first time.
“The left’s war on our traditional values is beginning to take a toll on the overall amount of acceptance and tolerance for the average gay and lesbian in this country,” Moran said.
Log Cabin then explained how the organization has been working with Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and the state’s Republican legislature on the state’s controversial “Parental Rights in Education (Don’t Say Gay) Act,” which “prohibited the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in compulsory education from age 3 through third grade.”
Moran characterized the bill as policy based on a “common sense” approach, but noted it was “an overreaction, with poorly considered legislation being pushed across the country just as the 2023 presidential primaries are in full swing.”
“The following year, the same Florida bill was reintroduced to ban these conversations in Florida schools from ages 3 to 18, which was neither practical nor necessary, and that’s why we opposed the new bill,” Moran said. “It was not smart public policy.”
Overall, “average Americans think of themselves as tolerant and inclusive, and when we present a message that reeks of homophobia, anger, malice and exclusivity, they’re going to vote against us every time,” he said.
“Eighty percent of this country supports equality and inclusion for L, G, B and T,” Moran added, “but this comes with some guardrails around certain policy debates.”
“This shows a very serious messaging problem, and we at Log Cabin Republicans need to step in to help the Republican Party get these issues right,” he said.
In practical terms, Moran said, this would mean “first, fighting back against left-wing extremists and cultural Marxists who are trying to overturn our society’s deeply rooted cultural mores and have hijacked our civil rights movement, and second, fighting back against hard-line social conservatives who have never accepted true evolution and acceptance of LGBT equality in the first place and who are trying to drag the Republican Party back into the middle of a fight over same-sex marriage that was long ago decided.”
Regarding specific policy debates, they emphasized “1. protection and integrity of women’s spaces; 2. support for women’s sports and Title IX protections; 3. strong parental consent at all levels in school; and 4. banning permanent gender reassignment under the age of 18.”
Taking to the stage before Moran was Rick Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany who also served as acting director of national intelligence during the Trump administration.
The diplomat and conservative political activist welcomed the Republican Party’s new platform this year, which for the first time did not express opposition to same-sex marriage.
But the two-page document also calls for banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ sports and includes proposals to cut federal funding to “schools that impose critical race theory, extreme gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on children.”
“I couldn’t be prouder to have this platform under Donald Trump,” Grenell said. “After the platform passed, President Trump called me and said, ‘Did you see what we did?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I did. It’s great. We’re going to be quiet and take some time until this is really fleshed out. And I know this is going to be a little difficult for some people, so we’re going to take some time before we talk about it.’ And he said, ‘No, we won! Let’s start talking.’ He was committed. He was committed with us.”
“When Donald Trump took over running this party in 2016, I was never worried that he would politicize us,” Grenell said. “He doesn’t think so. He firmly believes that we are part of American society, and he thinks it would be really weird not to think that way.”
But he also stressed that he expected Trump to “police our own communities to condemn the radical left,” telling the audience that they “should bluntly reject” the crazy radical gay left, who “doesn’t speak for us.”
“Right now the gay left wants to keep us in a box and then bring us out six months before the election to show us off and constantly say we need special protections,” Grenell said. “We’re not going to do that. We want to be at the forefront.”
He added: “I caused the most trouble when I said the State Department should eliminate all DEI programs. We don’t need glittering, glamorous special offices. We want to be at the table for substantive discussions. We want to be at the table when we make Africa policy. We want to be at the table when we make Europe policy.”
