A response to Log Cabin Republicans

I absolutely love cake. To be specific, I love Costco white birthday cake. I can seriously eat an entire cake in one sitting. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t.

But here’s the odd thing.: I don’t care for the icing on my cake.

I like the cake-portion, the spongy-cakey-goodness. But the icing? I can take it or leave it. I usually scrape it to the side of my plate.

I feel the same way about chocolate chips. I love chocolate chip cookies, but I don’t really care for chocolate chips.

Does all this sound odd to you? It is a little odd. A lot odd, actually.

But no more odd than the sweet, syrupy, sugary processed icing that the folks at the Log Cabin Republicans have been trying to stuff down our throats lately — even here, yes, in our community paper, the Dallas Voice.

Now, I’ve vacillated from extreme anger to “meh,” to actual admiration over the Voice’s decision to publish these articles and interviews. I know many of my friends have vowed to “never read the Voice again.” Ok, I get it.

However, ignoring a growing condition will not make it go away. I have friends on staff at the Voice, and on several occasions, I have picked up my phone, ready to make a call. But then I calmed down and evaluated and understood that while they might be opinions I vehemently disagree with, they ARE opinions of fellow community members and have just as much right to be shared as mine.

We cannot simply ignore them.

The views of the Log Cabin Republicans (and their support of the MAGA movement) are like a quiet medical condition. We can only treat it if we identify it, prescribe for it and, finally, defeat it.

It’s a thin line our community news is treading, but guess what? Ignoring does not make it go away.

Back to the cake.

How could we NOT love ideals like lower taxes, gay men posted to diplomatic positions, cheaper eggs, more money in our wallets? How could we not want a safer community, free from crime and threats from people that wish to do us harm?

On the surface, the benefits of a Trump presidency, as outlined by the leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans, sound wonderful! The sweet, soft, delicious icing of our government cake — tasty. Harmless. And something we all should love and welcome.

I want those things. I want those things for all of us!

But, my friends, it’s all icing. It’s the cake you have to watch out for.

Buried under all those beautifully crafted PR bullet points — and not far beneath for anyone willing to do the work — is a vastly different agenda, an agenda built on the backs of the rights of our LGBTQ+ siblings (especially the T), immigrants that contribute to our community, women, our allies in the world.

It is an agenda that seeks to empower the wealthy and privileged among us, at the price of the freedoms, liberties and safety of those most vulnerable. And, if you are reading this, and you are a person who identifies as LGBTQ+, and especially if you are a person of color, or a trans person, you are at the very top of that list.

YOU, now, are the most vulnerable.

As I write this, tomorrow will be one week into the Trump presidency. One week — and already, we are seeing the above fears being played out.

This is not hysterical fear-mongering on our part. These are things that are actually happening. They have already happened.

One week, folks. They told us “Project 2025” was a lie. One week, and now we know it certainly wasn’t.

I’m old enough to remember the Log Cabin Republicans from way back when — back in the Reagan/Clinton/Gore/Bush days. We disagreed then. We had severe and stark policy differences.

But those were different times, and we were different people and a different community. I never felt that the support of a movement could erase my existence. I might not have been able to get married, but I never felt threatened. I was already invisible. How much worse could it get?

The Log Cabin Republicans annoyed me, but I still called them friends. Their support of Republican candidates and movements were a matter of policy differences, not way of life.

So much has changed. We’ve made so much progress. And now, that progress is being severely threatened.

The MAGA movement is a threat not just to LGBTQ+ people, but to anyone who does not adhere to a specific worldview. And, my fellow community members, that’s most of us.

My personal opinion? It’s not Trump. Trump is a cartoon character. Trump is the manipulatable figurehead of a much more dangerous creature — the MAGA movement. He’s a loud, brash, gullible human, who probably doesn’t really care all that much whether or not we are gay, trans, a mongoose — no, he likely doesn’t care.

He cares about power. And the people giving him power are the same people who have been sharing their views in this very news outlet lately.

And right behind these people, are the folks with pitchforks. The people who would rather us not exist. The people who wish us back into the closets, unable to marry, unable to receive medial care, unable to live our lives free of abuse and danger.

One more reminder: Trump won the popular vote by the thinnest margin in history. A popular vote victory smaller than our very own D/FW metroplex.

The other side will have you believe otherwise. That there is a mandate. It’s just not true. Don’t fall for it. There is no mandate. There is no national movement to the “right.”

The Log Cabin Republicans are icing — so smooth, so “acceptable,” shimmery, sugary, tasty. But my friends, dig deeper. Do the work, and you will see. There is a threat behind all their pretty words.

I hope and pray in four years, I look back with embarrassment at the audacity of this opinion piece, at how ridiculous I was. I truly do. But until then, we must keep our guard up and ready.

But, a week in? Doesn’t sound all that dramatic does it?

Guard up, my friends. Focus on the cake.

The views presented by the writer are strictly their personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organizations or entities they are associated with, and should not be considered the views of said organizations.