The American organization Log Cabin Republicans, the conservative group defending the rights of homosexuals linked to the Republican Party, has abandoned trans people and the defense of their rights. The organization ―“the oldest and largest in the US for LGB conservatives and our heterosexual allies,” as they now describe themselves on their website― has decided to “focus specifically on issues of sexual orientation and conservative values.” Numerous LGTBIQ+ rights advocacy groups have condemned this decision. Among them, the National Stonewall Democrats, linked to the Democratic Party: “[The Republicans] are throwing trans people overboard.”
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[This text is an excerpt from the Queerletter, EL PAÍS’s weekly LGTBIQ+ newsletter. To receive it, you can sign up here].
“We are an organization defending LGB people, just as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be,” detailed Ross Hemminger, president of Log Cabin Republicans, in a text published last week. This reverses the decision they made in 2015, when the fight for trans people’s rights was included in their statement of principles. At that time, the organization stated that all adults should be free to seek happiness “without government interference.” Not anymore. Now, Hemminger has linked trans rights with an alleged “radical gender ideology.” An argument that echoes the one used by Donald Trump’s government in attacks and cuts to trans people’s rights, which have intensified since the start of his second term.
That Republican president’s siege has materialized in the requirement to codify the sex assigned at birth in documents like passports; in the withdrawal of driver’s licenses; the ban on enlisting in the military; cuts to gender-affirming treatments, especially for minors; or the expulsion of trans women from sports. “The transgender movement wants biological men to compete in women’s sports regardless of the consequences,” said Hemminger, in one of the favorite conservative American slogans in the so-called “culture war.”
The Log Cabin Republicans was founded in 1978 in California in response to the Briggs Initiative, Proposition 6, as the regulatory attempt to ban lesbians and gays from working in public schools was known. Although in 2016 the organization did not support Donald Trump’s candidacy due to his lgtbiphobic positions, it did support him in the next two presidential elections, the ones he lost in 2020 against Biden and the one two years ago, when he returned to the White House. That Trumpist turn was consolidated under the presidency of Charles Moran, who was in office from August 2019 ―after the resignation of Jerri Ann Henry, precisely because the organization decided to support Trump’s candidacy― until January 2025.
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Moran is a magay, a term that encompasses homosexuals linked to the MAGA universe (Make America Great Again): “Overwhelmingly white men, who do not use the word queer and are not disgusted that their party leader fuels moral panic against trans people,” describes The New York Times. After his time on the Log Cabin Republicans executive, he was rewarded with a position in the Trump government, linked to the Department of Energy.
“The Log Cabin Republicans have completed their process of magafication and have fully yielded to Trump’s wishes with a measure lacking principles and cowardly in an attempt to save their own skin,” criticized Jeremy Comeau, president of National Stonewall Democrats, in a statement published on social media regarding the exclusion of trans people. Furthermore, he warned that those who deny trans people’s rights will not stop there: “Anti-trans legislation is the first step. The same coalition is already attacking marriage equality, adoption rights [for same-sex couples], and protection against discrimination.”
“Hiding your head in the sand doesn’t keep you safe, it just means you don’t see what’s coming. LGB people are also in the crosshairs. They always were,” Comeau elaborated, highlighting that the organization he represents will continue supporting trans people, emphasizing their role in activism and the fight for the collective’s rights, “at Stonewall and in every struggle that followed.” “The stone walls still stand centuries later. The log cabins [Log Cabin] rot from within,” he added.
In the Queerletter, Pablo León collects LGTBIQ+ stories like this every Tuesday. If you also want to be part of the community, sign up here.