News
Texas GOP Bans Log Cabin Republicans
Party Spokesman Robert Black Compares Delegates to KKK, Child Molestors
(WASHINGTON, DC) – The Republican Party of Texas has prohibited the Log Cabin
Republicans of Texas, represented by over 50 openly gay, elected GOP
delegates and alternates, from having an official presence at the state GOP
convention in Fort Worth this weekend, and has publicly compared the
organization to the Ku Klux Klan and to child molestors in a series of
scathing official public statements.
"The Republican Party is not going to allow individuals like the Log Cabins
or the KKK or any other hate group in direct conflict withour philosophy a
forum to spread their hateful message," said Texas GOP spokesman Robert
Black to the Associated Press on June 6. In a Dallas Morning News article
on June 4, Black also compared Log Cabin Republicans to the North American
Man/Boy Love Association, a pedophile organization.
"We are Republicans. We played by the rules, got elected as delegates in
fair elections, and now we are being kept out," said Steve Labinski,
president of Log Cabin Republicans Texas and a convention delegate.
"You can't call yourself a big-tent party and discriminate against people
at the same time," said Richard Tafel, executive director of the national
Log Cabin Republicans in Washington, D.C. "Furthermore, as a Christian
minister, I am offended that our organization is being accused of spewing
hate against people of faith. It's completely dishonest. We can argue as
to whether the Texas Republican Party speaks for God, but there is no
question that only one side in this is spreading hatred that that is Robert
Black and the Texas GOP."
"What is it going to take for good Republicans to wake up and confront what
is happening to their party?" Tafel said.
The action by the state party also called into question the leadership of
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX), who will receive the nomination of the
party at the convention. Bush is touted as a potential GOP presidential
candidate in 2000 who could unite conservatives and moderates in the party,
but has refused to comment on the Log Cabin ban and the official public
statements of Black and others about the group of openly gay delegates and
alternates going to Fort Worth.
In response to the Texas GOP action, Log Cabin Republicans Texas will hold a rally at the
Fort Worth Water Gardens on Saturday, June 13, at noon, in support of an
inclusive Republican Party.