Log Cabin Republicans Urge GOP to “Get It Right on Gay Marriage”
In a full-page ad published in The Hill newspaper today, Log Cabin Republicans urged Congressional Republicans to “Get It Right on Gay Marriage.”
Commending the GOP for being right on taxes, spending and health care, the ad asks if the party is on the “Right Side of History” on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Log Cabin Republicans applauds those Republican members of Congress who have signed on to the Respect for Marriage Act and urges other Republicans to follow their lead. To be the party of limited government, individual liberty, and fiscal responsibility, the Republican Party must stop standing in the way of caring adults building a family and a life together. A full 53 percent of Americans now support the freedom to marry. It’s time for Republicans to stop spending taxpayer money defending DOMA and start defending the right of ALL Americans to pursue happiness with the person they love.
In the past LCR has argued that while the group of LGBT Republicans opposes the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, as long as DOMA is law Congress is obligated to defend it if the Obama administration will not.
“The House Counsel is a nonpartisan administrative entity tasked with defending current statute passed by Congress. The law is entitled to a defense no matter how bad it may be, just as a murderer is entitled to a defense,” former LCR Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper told Metro Weekly last month.
According to interim Executive Director Gregory Angelo, LCR’s renewed focus on DOMA is not a change from this policy.
“What our ad today in The Hill calls attention to is the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars used by the House to defend DOMA. Unfortunately, they are only doing that because the President has abdicated his responsibility to defend the law,” Angelo said in an email to Metro Weekly. “The recent decision to formally incorporate funding for DOMA defense into the Congressional Rules was an unnecessary extra step the House Republicans took, and as such we felt they needed to be called out on that.”
Angelo added that LCR maintains the best way to take the issue of DOMA off the table is to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which currently has the open support of three House Republicans.
“I do agree with past Log Cabin Republicans precedent that as long as DOMA is law, it must be defended, but we take issue with the added attention incorporating funding for DOMA defense into the Congressional Rules brings to the issue, while distracting Republicans from what unites us as a party,” said Angelo.
Today’s DOMA ad is the third full-page newspaper ad bought by LCR in as many weeks. On Dec. 27, 2012, LCR ran a full-page ad in The New York Times preemptively declaring President Barack Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, wrong on “gay rights,” Israel and Iran. In a second full-page ad in the Jan. 7 Washington Post, LCR chronicled Hagel’s record on “gay rights” and declared the Nebraska Republican’s recent apology for anti-gay comments made in 1998 “Too Little, Too Late.”
LCR has faced criticism for their opposition to Hagel as defense secretary after endorsing Mitt Romney for president in 2012, who had a decidedly more anti-gay record than Hagel.
The ads signal a renewed effort to raise the profile of the national organization after a series of defeats for Republicans last election that many have credited to the party’s views on social issues. With LCR’s counter organization, Stonewall Democrats, closing its doors until 2014 after failing to make up a budget shortfall, LCR’s spending on advertising appears to indicate the organization is on sound financial footing.
That said, Angelo has declined to indicate the source of the funding for the recent ad campaign.
“What I will say is that this new, bolder, stronger Log Cabin Republicans the public has seen in recent weeks is the result of a year-long concerted effort by our board of directors to put us on sound financial footing so we are able to focus on raising the national profile of Log Cabin Republicans,” Angelo said. “From my perspective, it seems to be working.”
[Image: LCR ad from Jan. 9 The Hill (Courtesy of LCR).]
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