GOP's Platform
Snubs Gay Rights

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)