They let this guy write their platform? I wouldn't even let him in the same building.
Well, that didn't take long. The Log Cabin Republicans may be glad to get a sentence in the Republican platform suggesting that all Americans
be treated with "respect and dignity," but that's all they're getting. The rest of the document will be an homage to how to
respectfully tell the LGBT community that they don't have true American values and need to just shut up already. As noteworthy hate figure Tony Perkins, who for some reason is still perfectly welcome in Republican circles despite that whole "dignity" thing,
says:
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told BuzzFeed: “You should read the entire plank on marriage, which I wrote. I feel very happy about it. I feel pretty optimistic about the outcome here.”
When you've outsourced your marriage policy stance to Tony Effing Perkins, I'm not thinking there's going to be a lot of "respect and dignity" involved. I guess the "respect" part means they don't call for imprisoning gay people, just for an all-out reversal of whatever rights they may have gained in the last decades. From
the draft document:
A serious threat to our country's constitutional order, perhaps even more dangerous than presidential malfeasance, is an activist judiciary, in which some judges usurp the powers reserved to other branches of government. A blatant example has been the court-ordered redefinition of marriage in several States. This is more than a matter of warring legal concepts and ideals. It is an assault on the foundations of our society, challenging the institution which, for thousands of years in virtually every civilization, has been entrusted with the rearing of children and the transmission of cultural values. [...]
We oppose the Administration's open defiance of this constitutional principle—in its handling of immigration cases, in federal personnel benefits, in allowing a same-sex marriage at a military base, and in refusing to defend DOMA in the courts—makes a mockery of the President's inaugural oath.
And so on and so forth. Note that even altering federal personnel benefits for gay couples now rises to the level of constitutional issue; apparently even
that is a danger to our fragile constitutional rights to tell other people how to live and who they're allowed to do it with, so you can imagine just how much freedomz is involved in their insistence upon the full Defense of Marriage Act.
Lots of freedomz. I gather this must be the part that Tony Perkins wrote his very own self, though I feel the need to add some annotations:
[T]he future of marriage affects freedom. [He means "freedomz".] The lack of family formation not only leads to more government costs, but also more government control over the lives of its citizens in all facets. [We want to government to better control citizens so that government won't control citizens. Duh.] We recognize and honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the many burdens of parenting alone, even as we believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through laws governing marriage. [We'll give a shout out to single parents here, who piss us off so much that Vice President Dan Quayle once took on Murphy Brown, an entirely fictional television character, just so he could opine on how rotten single parents were, but you gay Americans are still ten times worse than that.] We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity.
Well, at least it's respectful, it says so right there. No calls for imprisonment of gay Americans, no open bouts of swearing or accusations of Satanism. I guess I can see how the Log Cabin Republicans can see that as a bit of a victory.