Log Cabin Republicans, a leading organization for gay conservatives, will no longer advocate for transgender people, a significant break within the LGBTQ movement as the GOP makes opposition to trans rights a political and policy priority.
The influential group added support for transgender issues to its platform more than a decade ago amid growing cultural acceptance. But Log Cabin Republicans President Ross Hemminger told CNN that in recent years his members have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the focuses of the trans community, including gender-affirming care for minors and the participation of trans girls and women in sports.
“It has gone to places we never in good conscience could get behind,” Hemminger said.
The decision announced Thursday to drop the “T” from the group’s “LGBT” mission comes as gay and lesbian Republicans face renewed threats to the rights they have spent decades fighting to secure, with those challenges largely emerging from within Hemminger’s party.
Earlier this year, a coalition of conservative groups launched an initiative aimed at challenging the legal foundations of same-sex marriage and preventing gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.
