While the
Republican Party's 2008 platform has diminished in size
compared to its 2004 plan, the party has made sure to
include measures to prevent gay and lesbian couples
from gaining marriage equality.
While the
Republican Party's 2008 platform has diminished in size
compared to its 2004 plan, the party has made sure to
include measures to prevent gay and lesbian couples
from gaining marriage equality. The 2004 document was
more than double the size of this year's, which is about
20,000 words, and mentions presidential nominee Sen. John
McCain only in the preamble, according to National
Public Radio. A stark comparison to the last platform,
which mentioned incumbent president candidate George
Bush on nearly every page. The 120 platform delegates went
after same-sex marriage, the military's ban on openly
gay service members, and judges that rule in favor of
LGBT rights.
"Because our
children's future is best preserved within the
traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a
constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage
as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot
make other arrangements equivalent to it," the final
draft of the platform says. The party also touts the Defense
of Marriage Act, passed by a Republican Congress in
1996, affirming the right of states to deny marriage
to same-sex couples. The platform also urges
Massachusetts to reverse its policy of requiring religious
organizations to provide adoption services to gay and
lesbian couples.
McCain has said
that he believes marriage is a union between a man and a
woman but would let states decide on whether to allow
marriage.
Activist judges
who ignore the Constitution and inject personal opinions
into their rulings must be stopped, the platform says.
The party also
mentioned the military's ban on openly gay service
members. "To protect our servicemen and women, and ensure
that America's Armed Forces remain the best in the
world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the
benefits of traditional military culture, and the
incompatibility of homosexuality with military
service," the platform says. In a letter to the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Fund in 2007, McCain said
that including openly gay military personnel would
pose an "intolerable risk to morale, cohesion, and
discipline."
While the party
accepts federal policies already in place to ban
discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed,
disability, or national origin, there was no mention
of protections for sexual orientation or gender
identity.
While the
platform did mention ongoing support for HIV/AIDS prevention
and treatment, the focus would remain on treatment in Africa
and other parts of the world. Prior to the release of
the platform, the party's LGBT contingent, the Log
Cabin Republicans, called for an effort to fight HIV
in the states.
"It is
inexcusable for the U.S. not to have a national plan to
address this ongoing crisis," said Log Cabin Republicans
president Patrick Sammon said in a July 30 statement.
"The U.S. won't give [the President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief] money to any country without a
National Strategy for combating HIV/AIDS, yet we don't have
a plan in our country. That's not right."
The platform will
go before the full Republican National Convention in
St. Paul, Minn., on Monday. (The Advocate)
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