Texas GOP Passes Agenda Further Targeting LGBTQ+ Community: 'Homosexuality Is an Abnormal Lifestyle Choice'
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During this weekend's Texas GOP biennial convention in Houston, delegates voted on — and passed — their latest platform, which includes decisive anti-LGBTQ+ measures.
One section of the platform labeled "Homosexuality and Gender Issues" states that "homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice." The Texas Tribune reports that this language is a new addition that was not included in the 2018 or 2020 party platforms.
Chris Halbohn, president of the Log Cabin Republicans' Houston chapter, called that line "an unnecessarily gratuitous addition to the Republican Party of Texas' platform," KUT reports.
The Log Cabin Republicans is an organization that represents LGBTQ+ conservatives. The group was denied involvement in the event by "Texas Republican Party leadership," a decision that Log Cabin Republicans president Charles Moran called "not just narrow-minded, but politically short-sighted," in a statement shared to Twitter.
In addition, the new platform outlines its opposition to "all efforts to validate transgender identity."
The platform says that no medical practitioner or provider may "intervene in any way to prevent natural progression of puberty," "administer or provide opposite sex hormones" or "perform any surgery on healthy body parts of the underage person."
Saturday's vote also included an item to nullify Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states in 2015.
"We believe the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, overturning the Texas 1192 law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Texas, has no basis in the Constitution and should be nullified," the document reads.
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The weekend's convention comes in the wake of numerous efforts across the country to restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people — namely children.
Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed that parents of transgender kids who undergo gender-affirming surgeries be investigated for "child abuse."
In Florida, educators will soon be prohibited from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with students in kindergarten up to third grade after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed controversial legislation that opponents have denounced as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. That law is set to take effect in July, and has inspired other Republican-led states to consider similar legislation.
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And earlier this month, Republican Bryan Slaton — a member of the Texas House of Representatives — announced that he is filing a bill that will aim to ban drag shows in the presence of minors in Texas.
"Drag shows are no place for a child," Slaton tweeted on June 6. "I would never take my children to a drag show and I know Speaker Dade Phelan and my Republican colleagues wouldn't either."
