Or they would be, if the Board were the ones to bear the responsibility of defending their choice. Unfortunately, with the exception of the two who will fade into the background after this one op-ed, that sad duty will likely fall to the lone remaining staffer, Log Cabin’s president, Jerri Ann Henry. When she was hired less than a year ago, I was hopeful that despite watching the organization’s slide toward Trump apologism under Gregory T. Angelo, their hiring a skilled and principled operative like Henry meant the organization would finally be able to again be a conscience this party needs, honoring our legacy of fighting for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by rebuking the president for his transgender military ban, or working to support Republican candidates that could win suburban women voters who reject this administration’s ugliness (and incidentally tend to support LGBT rights). I publicly celebrated her hiring, and encouraged my peers in the LGBT advocacy community to give LCR another shot, knowing that a vibrant and effective Log Cabin could be a godsend during a Trump/Pence administration. I went to my first Log Cabin gathering in years, hopeful for reconciliation with an organization I had once loved and served with all my heart.
But instead I’ve watched as her hands have been tied from the beginning by a Board and membership that, like the party as a whole, has seen its best people walk away, leaving behind a sad remnant that increasingly fulfils the stereotypes that used to be slung at Log Cabin Republicans: overwhelmingly gay men who are indifferent to the experiences of women, transgender Americans, or LGBT people who lack the financial or social resources to protect them from the discrimination that they so often deny even exists. They are more likely to complain that “it is harder to come out as conservative than as gay” (which, even if it were true, no self-respecting red-blooded conservative would ever whine that way) than to challenge anything but the worst homophobia (except when it aligns with the president’s penchant for condemning non-Russian foreign countries), and are generally perfectly willing to overlook transgender people being denied equal opportunities to make a living or wear our nation’s uniform, because “we didn’t sign up to fight for that.” Don’t believe me? Read the endorsement again, and note how, despite the obligatory invocation of “LGBTQ,” when they talk about policies and Trump’s supposed support for the community, the word “transgender” is nowhere to be found. When I was the programs director for Log Cabin, I added LGBT to our organizational style guide; our team emphasized the needs of trans people fighting for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act – LCR once knew how to advocate for the whole LGBT community, even if it we didn’t always agree with the rest of the movement on how best to do so. They have now chosen not to. I hate to say it, but it has to be said: by aligning themselves with Trump’s ‘own the libs’ tribalist mentality, Log Cabin has ironically devolved into the worst kind of identity politics; insular, defensive, self-pitying, and bitter, instead of the proud, principled group it once was.
Others will explain, I am certain, exactly why this endorsement’s claim that “Trump met his commitments to LGBTQ Americans” is a lie from the pit of hell. That it arrives barely a day after the administration has proposed rules potentially gutting an executive order ensuring federal tax dollars are not used to discriminate is only the latest example of their having been conned by one of the least subtle con-men our nation has ever known. I just want to put it on record that it did not have to be this way, and express my grief that, in a time when we most need a proud Republican organization willing to speak out for the idea that inclusion wins, we don’t have one anymore.
Call me any name you please - and I know folks will - but please, don’t call me a Log Cabin Republican.
