Gay Republican group endorses Mitt Romney
With 2 weeks to go before polling day, the Log Cabin Republicans, the conservative LGBT campaign group which supports the party, has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
In a statement, the group said: “Our endorsement of Mitt Romney is not free. We commit, here and now, that we will work with the party as we are able, and challenge the party as it is necessary, to ensure that it lives up to its highest ideals of limited government and individual freedom”.
The statement added: “The Log Cabin Republicans motto is ‘inclusion wins.’ If LGBT Americans are serious about winning equality for all, rather than merely playing politics, Republicans must be part of the team”.
Stonewall Democrats, which has endorsed President Obama, responded by saying: “With their endorsement of Mitt Romney today, the Log Cabin Republicans have proven once and for all that they are not an organisation aligned with the LGBT movement”
Executive Director Jerame Davis added: “They are a Republican front group bumbling their way into fooling LGBT voters that it’s OK to support a party that would legislate us back into the closet.”
The Log Cabin Republicans famously refused to support George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004 because of the former president’s desire to outlaw marriage rights for same-sex couples with the US Constitution.
Mitt Romney is also in favour of a constitutional ban on equal marriage; however Clarke Cooper, the president of the Log Cabin, told the Huffington Post “times have changed,” and that “There’s no appetite to pass or even consider that amendment.”
Mr Cooper called Romney’s support for the amendment “an empty promise made to a vocal but shrinking constituency.”
