The gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans is declining to endorse Donald Trump, or anyone, and says it will be working to preserve a Republican Congress instead:
“Trust, but verify.”
So cautioned former President Ronald Reagan who inspired our founding in 1977—and it is a solemn understanding of that very instruction from our 40th president that compels Log Cabin Republicans to withhold endorsement from our Party's current nominee.
Mr. Trump is perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party. His unprecedented overtures to the “LGBTQ community”—a first for any major-party candidate in our nation's history—are worthy of praise, and should serve as a clarion call to the GOP that the days of needing to toe an anti-LGBT line are now a thing of the past.
But Log Cabin Republicans have long emphasized that we are not a single-issue organization, nor are our members single-issue voters. Even if we were, rhetoric alone regarding LGBT issues does not equate to doctrine. As Mr. Trump spoke positively about the LGBT community in the United States, he concurrently surrounded himself with senior advisors with a record of opposing LGBT equality, and committed himself to supporting legislation such as the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” that Log Cabin Republicans opposes.
Should Mr. Trump become our nation's next President, Log Cabin Republicans welcomes the opportunity to work with his administration to ensure the advances in LGBT freedom we have fought for and secured will continue.
Until and unless that happens, our trust would be misplaced.
Log Cabin Republicans will spend the remainder of the 2016 election cycle committed to preserving and growing GOP majorities in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
Here's FiveThirtyEight's prognostication for the Senate.
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Other gay Republicans disagree.
ABC News talks with a couple of misguided fellows, who have convinced themselves somehow that Trump supports them, like California delegate Charles Moran:
“Donald Trump is the best candidate that the LGBT community has ever seen come out of the Republican Party,” Moran said. “We see a consistent line from Donald Trump that being pro LGBT and pro inclusion is a good business decision and I believe he's going to bring that with him in the White House.” …
“We see a consistent line from Donald Trump that being pro-LGBT and pro-inclusion is a good business decision and I believe he's going to bring that with him in the White House,” Moran said.
Despite the fact that Trump's Christian conservative running mate Mike Pence enacted anti-LGBTQ laws as governor of Indiana, such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Moran said he's comfortable with Pence because he's “not running for president.”
And Juan Hernandez, a gay Hispanic Trump supporter:
Juan Hernandez is a gay Hispanic Trump supporter who also witnessed Thiel and Trump's history-making speeches at the RNC this summer. But said he has encountered violence for being pro-Trump, adding that an anti-Trump protester attacked him at a Trump rally in San Jose.
“I saw a fist come in and hit my nose and my nose just instantly started pouring blood,” Hernandez said….
Hernandez says he's also criticized for being Mexican and still supporting Trump.
“They need to listen to the whole thing that he believes,” he said. “He's not against the Mexican culture or the Mexican community — he's against illegal immigration.”
And of course, you know about these guys:
