Texas GOP Locks Out Log Cabin Gays
The Data Lounge,
Friday, June 5, 1998
http://www.datalounge.com/pages/sections/news/98/06/05/003.news
AUSTIN - The Dallas Morning News reports Republican leaders in Texas
have denied two predominantly gay and lesbian organizations, the Log Cabin Republicans and
the Texas Freedom Network, booth space at the party's convention in Fort Worth to be held
later this month.
The Texas Republican Party communications director Robert Black told the Morning News
the two groups' views do not represent the "mainstream views of Republicans and most
Texans."
"We're not going to allow a forum for the kind of hateful language against people
of faith that the Texas Freedom Network, or the KKK or the National Man-Boy Love
Association or whoever else wants to spew," Mr. Black said.
Kathy Miller, spokeswoman for the Freedom Network, said Mr. Black's "accusations
and name-calling really show how desperate they are to censor our viewpoint. The Texas
Freedom Network," she said, "never engages in hate speech."
The Texas GOP did the same thing to the Log Cabin group in 1996 when a similar request
for booth space at the state convention was rejected. When Log Cabin members pointed out
to state Republican leaders that pro choice groups were being allowed to erect booths,
then-state GOP executive director Barbara Jackson fired back, "abortion is legal in
Texas but sodomy is not."
Cecile Richards, daughter of former Democratic Gov. Ann Richards and executive director
of the Texas Freedom Network, said she is disappointed. "Our organization is
nonpartisan, offering a mainstream alternative to the religious right on many issues of
importance to Texans," she said. "Unfortunately, the Republican Party leaders
seem intent on silencing anyone who disagrees with the political agenda of the religious
right."
Before the GOP state convention in 1996, the Log Cabin Republicans had challenged in
court the party's decision to disallow their information booth at the gathering. The Texas
Supreme Court later upheld the GOP's decision not to allow the group a booth.
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