HRC Denounces Log
Cabin Endorsement of McCain

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese released a statement Wednesday taking Log Cabin Republicans to task for its endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

In the public statement, sent to all HRC members via e-mail and posted on HRC.org, Solmonese clearly outlined McCain's contribution to "writing discrimination into" the Constitution.

"John McCain claims to be a maverick who breaks with his party, but on matters of LGBT equality, he's shown that he's anything but," Solmonese said.

Responding to the Republican platform, which was officially laid out on Monday at the party's national convention, Solmonese used marriage, military service, and faith-based organizations as firepower against Log Cabin's endorsement.

"The Republican Party, McCain and Palin's party, has declared in its platform that they want to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment," Solmonese said in the statement. "Their party's platform also calls gay and lesbian Americans unfit for military service, supports policies that would allow faith-based organizations to deny us jobs and services using federal dollars, and attacks judges who acknowledge our equality under the law."

The Republican platform also endorses the renewal of the E-Verify employee verification system, which potentially creates chaos for transgender individuals whose documents may not be consistent, as well as abstinence-only sex education programs, according to PinkNews.UK.

The platform calls for "the continuation of failed abstinence-only-until-marriage sexuality education programs, which exclude and even demonize GLBT people," Solmonese added. (The Advocate)