04/11/2008
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders Addresses Log Cabin Republicans
Rex Wockner spent some time yesterday at the Log Cabin Republicans National Convention and reports on San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders' appearance there. Sanders, you may remember, surprised voters by reversing his position on civil unions and endorsing gay marriage at a press conference last September (video AFTER THE JUMP).
The San Diego Union Tribune also reported on the gathering: "Sanders did not broach the gay marriage issue in his brief remarks at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in Mission Valley, choosing to use the occasion for a stump speech for his re-election. But immediately after he left, organization president Patrick Sammon told the delegates that Sanders had taken a stand for 'marriage equality.' Following his change of heart last year, Sanders signed a resolution from the City Council in support of same-sex marriage in a case being decided by the state Supreme Court. 'The mayor took a courageous stand and signed that resolution,' Sammon said to wild applause. 'He could have vetoed it.' Same-sex marriage is a polarizing issue within the Republican Party and in the San Diego mayor's race. Republican Steve Francis, Sanders' chief rival in the June 3 election, said he would have vetoed the resolution. He is opposed to same-sex marriage and instead favors civil unions."
Said Sanders, according to Wockner: "I'm proud of the political opportunity that this brings in terms the interaction and the issues and the people you're bringing here. I understand Gov. Schwarzenegger and [former U.N. Ambassador] Bolton are coming in tomorrow and I think that really tells you how important all of these issues are to all of us and how important the Republican Party -- how important Log Cabin Republicans are to the whole process."
Wockner talked to LCR President Patrick Sammon about Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain, and said that the group is likely to vote to endorse McCain during the convention.
Said Sammon: "We're pleased he was nominated. Our posture during this campaign was stopping Mitt Romney. We're proud of the role we played with our ad campaign and, you know, Sen. McCain, we endorsed him in his Senate re-election in 2004; in 2000 a lot of our members were very supportive of his campaign, and certainly this time as well. We know he's someone who's an inclusive Republican who understands the party needs to get back to its core principles and we are excited about the campaign ahead."
Photo above by Rex Wockner. More at his blog.
AFTER THE JUMP, Jerry Sanders' press conference from last September...
Journalistic objectivity in action [rex wockner]
Sanders lauded as friend of gay community [san diego union tribune]
Posted 9:28 AM EST by Andy in Gay Marriage, John McCain, Log Cabin Republicans, News, San Diego | Permalink
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Didn't some guy just recently say "Words matter"?
Say it with me Andy:
marriage equality
marriage equality
marriage equality
Posted by: tjc | Apr 11, 2008 9:46:00 AM
sanders is a good man, he is helping change the face of the clown party that is the GOP
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
Posted by: queerunity | Apr 11, 2008 11:17:24 AM
Remind me why I should care what these KAPOS think.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Apr 11, 2008 12:36:45 PM
Will someone please remind Reich Commandant Sammon that McCain supported his state's constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. "I wholeheartedly support the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment and I hope that the voters in Arizona choose to support it as well." "At the meeting Sen. McCain presented a petition to PMA chair Lynn Stanley with his signature and the signatures of others. Sen. McCain then signed the back of the petition as a petition circulator."
That he had to have "LGBT" defined for him? That he admitted to having no idea if condoms helped prevent HIV transmission.
The Republican Party's Core Principles:
Greed
Profit Justifies Anything & Everything
Warmongering as phallic worship.
Favorite Beatle Song: "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"
Homo/Transphobia
Male Supremacy
White Supremacy
Patriarchy
More Greed
Demagoguery
Hypocrisy
A Fag is that gentleman who just left the room after writing us another big check.
The environment is but kindling wood for my comfortable lifestyle.
If everyone built just one little oil well what a wonderful world this would be.
Fake Piety & Ceaseless Sanctimoniousness
WE are God's Chosen People
Invasion of Everyone Else's Privacy
Civil Liberties Were Only Meant for Us
Constitution? What Constitution?
A day without Privilege is like a day without sunshine.
Did I Mention Greed?
Posted by: Leland Frances | Apr 11, 2008 12:57:18 PM
Help me understand what's offensive about LCR. (From their website:
What We Believe
We are loyal Republicans. We believe in limited government, strong national defense, free markets, low taxes, personal responsibility, and individual liberty. Log Cabin represents an important part of the American family—taxpaying, hard working people who proudly believe in this nation's greatness. We also believe all Americans have the right to liberty and equality. We believe equality for gay and lesbian people is in the finest tradition of the Republican Party. We educate our Party about why inclusion wins. Opposing gay and lesbian equality is inconsistent with the GOP's core principles of smaller government and personal freedom.
Posted by: Not Leland Francis | Apr 11, 2008 4:06:49 PM
The problem with the LCR, in my humble opinion, is that they have stayed at the GOP shindig long after the other non-gay standard-bearers of individual rights, limited government, personal responsibility, and free trade have left. It's the LCR standing around in a room of theistic, jingoistic, war-mongering ignoramuses.
They are elevating form (faithfulness to the PARTY) over substance (faithfulness to PRINCIPLES). And for that reason I think they're just silly. They're all a bunch of closet libertarians, but they're afraid to give up their claustrophobic, nostalgic fantasies of Polo, penny loafers, yachts, and golden retrievers.
Posted by: GM | Apr 11, 2008 4:53:50 PM
NOT LELAND FRANCIS [sic],
I believe I can answer your question, at least from my perspective.
What's offensive about LCR?
As you pointed out, the LCR, on their website, under "What We Believe", say:
"We are loyal Republicans".
THEN, they say:
"We believe in LIMITED government, STRONG national defense, free markets, low taxes, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, and INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. Additionally, they tell me that they believe in FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY and BALANCED BUDGETS.
What I find offensive about LCR, and ALL Republicans who say they are Republicans for the listed reasons, is their complete unwillingness to acknowledge and address the fact that the first statement COMPLETELY contradicts the second statement. The CURRENT version of the Republican Party believes in NONE of the things listed. I don't find them offensive because they aren't "liberals". I find them offensive because they support a political party that, almost across the board, stands AGAINST everything these people say they are FOR and stands FOR just about everything that these people say they are AGAINST. I find their delusion offensive.
I used to be a Republican for many of the reasons listed above. Once I realized that I couldn't say I supported them because they supported limited government while they expanded government more than at any time since the depression; or because they were for a strong national defense when Republican chicken hawks and draft dodgers have in five short years sent our troops to their deaths over lies, sent them without proper equipment, have decimated the ranks, and have voted OVER AND OVER again to CUT their benefits and care when they get home; or because they believe in privacy and the government staying out of citizens lives when they try to legislate what goes on in my bedroom and listen to my private phone conversations and read my private emails; or because they believe in individual liberty when they have targeted the GLBT community with discriminatory laws all for the sake of rallying their base; or because they believed in states rights when they try to pass a FEDERAL marriage amendment to take rights away from states; or because they believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets when, well, do I really have to explain this one?
So, NOT LELAND FRANCIS, does that answer your question?
It's not what Log Cabin people SAY that pisses me off. It's the fact that they say they support x, y and z but they support a political party that hasn't supported, and have worked diligently AGAINST x, y and z since the early 80's.
I also get sick to death of them whining that Republicans are more oppressed than gays. That is absolutely delusional!
Once again, I used to be an LCR back in the day when it seemed that their ideals somewhat reflected mainstream Republican values and their goals of changing the party from the inside on gay issues made sense and seemed possible.
There are two major and extremely obvious reasons why these rationales no longer make since:
1) Mainstream Republican values have shifted away from traditional Lincoln conservative values. They are no longer a party that supports individual freedom, a strong military, non interventionist foreign policy, small government, states’ rights, fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets. Additionally they have become a party largely, if not mostly, controlled by the anti-gay fundamentalist Christian right.
2) ALL of this shift has happened while the LCR was supposed to have been “changing the party from the inside” on issues of GLBT visibility, inclusion and equality. The party has become more and more anti-gay EACH AND EVERY YEAR since the formation of the LCR in the late seventies. The first point demonstrates why their statement as to why they are Republicans makes no sense and the second point demonstrates what a miserable failure they have been as an organization (when you compare their record of changing the Republican party’s anti-gay rhetoric, policies and values to THEIR OWN statement of purpose.)
End rant.
Posted by: Zeke | Apr 11, 2008 5:15:59 PM
Wow GM,
Way to sum up everything I was trying to say in two short paragraphs.
I really wish I had your gift for brevity.
Excellent post!
Posted by: Zeke | Apr 11, 2008 5:18:39 PM
I wanted to note Gov. Schwarzenegger spoke to the LCR and announced he will work to defeat a "traditional marriage" state constitutional amendment currently gathering signatures to appear on the Nov ballot.
The Republican Party is not a monolithic entity with rigidly enforced beliefs, but a coalition of at least three major groups, one are evangelical social conservatives but even across the three there's a spectrum of opinion on the issues. Pro-life folks who are not anti-gay, pro-business types who are not fiscal conservatives, social progressives who are war hawks, etc.
Even under Bush, jackbooted thugs haven't come for the gays like they came for little Elian Gonzales under Janet "closet case" Reno and Bill "DOMA-DADT" Clinton. There's no federal marriage amendment. No rollback of employment non-discrimination, no rollback of "hate crime" laws and, hey, there's been a major increase in HIV/AIDS funding.
Posted by: queendru | Apr 11, 2008 9:14:48 PM
QUEENDRU, I believe you have got to be the most disingenuous poster on Towleroad. Either that or you are completely delussional.
The ONLY reason why we don't have a federal marriage amendment is because of the vast majority of Democrats voting against the one that the Republicans presented.
We have numerous state marriage amendments ALL of which were pushed by each state's Republican party and Republican legislators.
We have no roll back on employment non-discrimination because the REPUBLICANS keep blocking it from being passed. You can't roll back something that doesn't exist.
We have had no rollback of "hate crime" laws, once again, because the REPUBLICANS have refused to present hate crimes legislation when they were in charge of Congress and they have blocked hate crimes legislation that the Democrats have presented.
Even the claim that Bush increased AIDS funding is questionable. He increaed AIDS funding to Africa (where "innocent" people, not homos are most likely to contract it) but the domestic funding is actually more about a reshuffling of existing funding.
I just LOVE how you twist and turn and jump through hoops to make it look like it's the Democrats who are anti-gay while the Republicans are the ones looking out for our best interests.
Really QUEENDRU, you must live in Bizarro World.
Posted by: Zeke | Apr 12, 2008 11:36:48 AM