The Wonderful World of Wanzie: A plea to gay Republicans

This is not my typical rant about how I am mystified by the very concept of Log Cabin Republicans. Instead this my sincere and earnest plea to LGBT persons who are registered Republicans to please come to your senses, and just for this one election, for your own sake, step away from the people – Republicans seeking office – who, if elected, will in fact drag us backward, reversing every stride we as a community have made toward equality over the past decade.

Your party has spoken. Your heterosexual Bible-thumping homophobic colleagues have voted for and adopted a platform that clearly and emphatically states YOU do not matter. A platform that clearly and emphatically states they intend to target YOU; to pro-actively work and vote to reverse YOUR marriages and declare YOUR unions once again illegal. To keep YOU from adopting. They have stated clearly and emphatically they intend to support the right of businesses to deny YOU goods and services simply because of who YOU are. In light of these very real, very dangerous, archaic planks in your party’s platform how can you possibly vote for Republicans in the upcoming election?

I am stunned by the number of Log Cabin Republicans remaining loyal to a party that actually, honestly, and openly seeks to harm YOU. To take away YOUR rights. To declare YOU less than they. To inform business owners and land lords and employers they have carte blanche to discriminate against YOU under the guise of so-called religious freedom. If in light of these very real threats to YOUR very existence you will still consider casting a vote for a Republican senator, representative, or presidential candidate this November then I would have to argue there is something seriously wrong with YOU and YOU should hot foot it over the LGBT Center for some mental health counseling to get to the root of why – like a battered spouse who gets caught up in a cycle of abuse – you would return home to a party that actually seeks to do YOU harm.

If you don’t care enough about YOURSELF to step away from this regressive anti-gay platform and vote for Democrats in November then do it for the children. Because, let’s not forget that your lovely party wishes to encourage and make easily and legally available the dangerous, mentally and emotionally damaging practice of reparative therapy. They seek to give a middle finger to modern medicine and sound science and instead champion ill-advised attempts to change gay children into straight children. THIS IS INSANITY! This practice so often results in suicide. How can you possibly bring yourself to vote for this dangerous, soul-crushing mind-fucking therapy? THIS ABUSE!

Regardless of how fiscally conservative you might be. Regardless of how many typically Republican approaches to governing with which you may be in line. Regardless of how much you may dislike Hillary. YOU as a gay person cannot logically cast a single vote for any Republican candidate in THIS particular election, because in doing so, you are saying YOU don’t matter and that the health and wellbeing of our gay youth also matter not to YOU.

I am not usually a fan of simply pulling down the party lever and voting strictly according to party lines. I have always been an advocate of voting for people based on their individual merits, voting history, and accomplishments and not based solely on party affiliation. But not this time. For all seats in Washington I will vote straight Democratic and I beg all persons concerned with LGBT issues to do the same in order to send a clear message to the RNC that their regressive hateful platform will not be tolerated.

The advances that have been made on behalf of our community over the past eight years are advances I honestly did not think I would see in my lifetime. We have struggled too long and have come too far to now risk being yanked back to a less tolerant and accepting time by a bunch of bigots and religious zealots only to be made once again legally less than others and that is precisely what voting Republican in this election would be endorsing.

And to all my Log Cabin Republican friends who have long insisted they are changing the Republican Party from within – that you are helping ween the Party along to be more accepting and supportive of LGBT persons – I would like to say to you, in the words of my dear friend Leslie Jordan who first spoke them to Dr. Eve during her attempted “de-homosexual-ization” of his character Brother Boy in Sordid Lives:

“WELL, IT AINT A WORKIN’!”