President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence give a thumbs up after speaking on the first day of the Republican National Convention (Chris Carlson-Pool/Getty)
An LGBT+ Republican group has endorsed 12 politicians who have long track records of opposing LGBT+ rights.
The Log Cabin Republicans, which describes itself as “the nation’s original and largest organisation representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies”, has endorsed 34 candidates from across the United States ahead of the upcoming election.
Writing on Twitter on October 20, the Log Cabin Republicans shared its list of endorsements, and said the group was throwing its weight behind candidates who would “advocate for limiting the size of government, strengthening personal freedom, and ensuring equality under the law for all Americans”.
The Log Cabin Republicans’ begin by endorsing Donald Trump for the presidency and Mike Pence for the vice-presidency – despite the fact that both have doggedly rolled back LGBT+ rights during their time in office.
And Trump and Pence are not the only anti-LGBT+ politicians on the Log Cabin Republicans’ endorsement list, according to LGBTQ Nation.
The Log Cabin Republicans have endorsed a number of politicians who have significant track-records of supporting anti-LGBT+ measures, including Michelle Steel, Anna Paulina Luna, Fred Upton, Nicole Maliotakis, Nancy Mace, Dan Crenshaw, Clarence Burgess Owens, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Mowers, John Paul Moran and George Devolder-Santos.
LGBT+ Log Cabin Republicans group endorses various politicians who have anti-queer track records.
Those politicians have all, at one point or another, supported anti-LGBT+ measures and opposed progress in LGBT+ people’s rights.
A number of the candidates have been vocal in their opposition to marriage equality, but some have made even more shocking claims about queer people.
Anna Paulina Luna, who is running as the Republican party’s candidate for Florida’s 13th US House District, tweeted in June 2019 that “paedophilia is not a sexual orientation”, but claimed that “LGBT is being used” to make child abuse “socially acceptable”.
Meanwhile, Nancy Mace retweeted claims in 2014 that Lindsey Graham was a “Nancy boy”, a well-known anti-gay slur. She later blamed the retweet on a staff member and had it removed.
Elsewhere, Dan Crenshaw has mocked trans and non-binary people’s pronouns, and Clarence Burgess Owens is a QAnon supporter who has called LGBT+ organisations “anti-God leftists against anything that the Christian faith is all about”.
Essentially, it’s safe to say that the Log Cabin Republicans’ endorsement list isn’t exactly full of vocal LGBT+ activists.
The placement of Trump and Pence at the top of the list says it all.