A look at the tensions which can exist between different factions within the two major political parties.
- Click here for the story:
In June 1998, a group of gay and lesbian conservatives, pushing for greater representation at the Texas Republican Party convention in Fort Worth, found themselves in a frightening clash with members of their own party.
Counterprotesters surrounded the Log Cabin members, wielding signs with homophobic slurs and phrases like “The Gay Life = AIDS Then Hell.” They pushed and spat and shoved their fingers in the faces of the gay Republicans.
Richard Tafel, the former executive director of the national Log Cabin Republicans which bills itself as the “nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies,” attended the Texas convention that year and recalls thinking he was in serious danger as they advocated for respect from members of their own party.
“We’re here to draw the line,” Tafel declared at the protest. “No more hatred, no more hatred in the name of God. And we won’t be silenced.”
A counterprotester threw a sign at his face.
“It was a tornado of emotion, volatile and dangerous, ready to touch down and sweep us all away at any moment. I was afraid for my own safety and that of others,” wrote Dale Carpenter, a former president of Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, in a newsletter later that year.
Ultimately, no one was injured that day. But it was a vivid display of homophobia within the party.
More than two decades later, this year’s Texas Republican convention made headlines again for its attitudes toward LGBTQ people. The party adopted a platform in June at its convention in Houston declaring that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice.” That party position comes after similar language had been stripped from the platform just four years earlier, representing a backward step for Log Cabin members who have for years been fighting for acceptance within their ranks.
Relevant terms:
gay and lesbian conservatives
representation
Texas Republican Party convention
Log Cabin Republicans
Counterprotesters
platform
Top of Form
party politics
conservative interest groups
gun rights
anti-abortion
freedom from vaccines
a booth also became a signal of party approval
official state party
the most hardline members and belief systems
mainstream conservatives in Texas
anti-LGBTQ initiatives
legislation
school sports
curriculum
library books
sexuality and gender identity
Gov. Greg Abbott
order
transgender care
child abuse
The Legislature
conservatives nationwide
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz
U.S. Supreme Court
same-sex marriage
U.S. House Republicans
State legislatures
300 anti-LGBTQ bills
transgender youth
infrastructure development
education
child poverty
school shootings
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn
270 planks in the GOP platform
Travis County GOP Convention
social issues
religious conservatives took over the party
The Galveston County GOP
religious right movement
The Culture War Speech
very organized activists
abortion and homosexuality
a booth at the Texas Republican Party convention
75 booths at the exhibit hall, including ones for
Texans for Vaccine Freedom
Texas Right to Life.
The group sued the party
district judge
Texas GOP appealed
state Supreme Court
associate justice of the state Supreme Court
reparative therapy
Texas GOP platform committee
Texas Values
Texas Conservative Liberty Forum
political action committee
gay rights in the country
state party’s executive committee
