News

Log Cabin Denounces North Carolina GOP

State GOP Statement a "Disgusting and Narrow-Minded Message of Intolerance That Must Be Denounced by Fair-Minded Republicans Everywhere"

December 9, 1998

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The nation's largest gay Republican organization denounced the North Carolina Republican Party for issuing a statement attacking Superior Court Judge Ray Warren (R), who announced today that he is gay.

"Ray Warren stood before the Republican Party Executive Committee on July 25th and professed to be a born again Christian," read the statement issued by Executive Director Lee Currie. "We trusted him. He has betrayed that trust. What a sad situation. Ray Warren has misled the people he represents and he has destroyed his family with his deviant and destructive behavior."

"This is a disgusting and narrow-minded message of intolerance that must be denounced by fair-minded Republicans everywhere," said Richard Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "It categorically declares the North Carolina Republican Party as an organization with one narrow religious interpretation, and all who don't measure up will be publicly attacked by the state party leadership. It is outrageous and unacceptable for such an unfair and exclusionary standard to go unchallenged."

"To imply that a Republican candidate must profess to be a born again Christian before the state Executive Committee to be accepted by the party is un-American," Tafel said. "To imply that a gay person cannot also be a Christian is highly offensive and is not in the purview of a political party to decide. Judge Warren's only crime, it seems, is that he told the truth."

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican organization, with 50+ chapters nationwide, a full-time Washington office and a federal political action committee.