The Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest group representing gay conservatives, have stopped supporting transgender people, dropping the T from what they called their “LGBT advocacy organization.”
Its president, Ross Hemminger, wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in the conservative outlet Townhall that when the group voted to add transgender rights to its mission in 2015, it was “out of a belief that all adults should be allowed to pursue their own happiness, free of government interference, as long as it did not impede on the inalienable rights of others.
“At the time, we did not believe that we would find ourselves where we are today.
“The transgender movement has ceased focusing on adults at all — nearly all of their efforts and those of their aligned special interest groups focus on minors. They push schools to teach radical gender ideology; they want biological men in women’s sports regardless of the consequences; perhaps most offensively, they support gender reassignment treatments for minors, often without the knowledge or consent of the parents, knowing full well these treatments are mostly irreversible.”
After discussion with its membership, the organization’s board of directors voted to refine national advocacy focus to “concentrate specifically on issues of sexual orientation and conservative values.”
“We are an LGB advocacy organization, as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be,” Mr. Hemminger wrote, referring to the acronym for lesbian, gay and bisexual.
Transgender issues, especially biological men competing in women’s sports, have created a sharp political divide in America. A recent Supreme Court ruling upheld state bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports and new federal Medicaid restrictions on puberty blockers and other procedures for youth.
“The new era of gender identity politics is not the movement we supported and fought for,” Mr. Hemminger said.
He added this doesn’t change who can become a Log Cabin Republican member.
“We welcome all of our allies in this mission and as participants in our organization,” he said. “Our chapters will continue to welcome all allies and will operate in ways that best serve their membership.”
Sarah Hunt, a former Log Cabin Institute board member, said on social media she’s “disappointed” by the decision. She argued that Log Cabin’s legacy had been “inclusion and building a big tent” and specifically pointed to Caitlyn Jenner as an example of a prominent transgender conservative.
The Log Cabin Republicans began in California in 1977 to fight an anti-gay school law, growing from a grassroots coalition into a prominent national organization.
