Pointing to his
decision to break from the Republican majority and speak
out against a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage,
the Log Cabin Republicans on Tuesday officially
endorsed John McCain for president. Log Cabin
president Patrick Sammon announced the endorsement to a
little over 200 attendees of the Big Tent Event at the
Republican National Convention.
Log Cabin had
indicated that gay marriage would be a hot-button issue for
the group this election season, and Sammon later told
The Advocate that McCain's opposition
to a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex
marriage was enough to warrant an endorsement.
"Senator McCain
stood with our community during its most critical
attack in the last 10 years," Sammon said, referring to the
Federal Marriage Amendment, "something it would
have taken 100 years to fix in our Constitution. And
Senator McCain paid a political price for that. He is
distrusted by social conservatives in part because of his
vote against the amendment. So we thought it was important
to show our support for him because he stood with us."
Log Cabin's board
of directors voted 12-2 in favor of the endorsement,
and Sammon said he had "no illusions" that many LGBT
activists would disagree with the decision. "It was
not a rubber stamp. There was a lot of good discussion
over the recent months -- a lot of
soul-searching, a lot of honest deliberation," he said.
Sammon noted that
LCR's membership largely favored the endorsement and
added that he deemed it a strategic imperative for the gay
community overall. "There's a 40% to 50% chance John
McCain will win this election and I think it's
important to have a strong voice that goes in and
makes the case for him to support the issues that we care so
much about. The fact is, John McCain is no George Bush
on these issues." LCR endorsed then-Governor
Bush in the 2000 election but declined to endorse him
for reelection in 2004 based largely on President Bush's
support for the Federal Marriage Amendment.
While McCain has
said he supports the definition of marriage as being
between a man and a woman and he advocated for passage of
his own state's marriage ban in 2006, he has said that
a federal ban on gay marriage is
"un-Republican." In 2004 he broke from the
Bush administration and condemned the proposed
amendment, saying he felt the 1996 Defense of Marriage
Act was a more appropriate measure.
McCain's
vice-presidential pick, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a
Christian conservative, has also gone on the record as
saying she is against same-sex marriage and for
defining marriage as being between a man and a woman,
adding that she supported passing the state's
constitutional marriage amendment in 1998.
She has, however,
received some credit from gay voters for vetoing a law
that would have denied health care and retiree benefits to
the partners of gay state employees, according to the
Anchorage Daily News. Palin vetoed the law
based on a recommendation from the Alaska attorney
general that it was unconstitutional. But she indicated
that she did not personally support extending
domestic-partner benefits to same-sex couples and
backed a state amendment to repeal the
Alaska supreme court's decision.
Sammon
acknowledged that Log Cabin Republicans disagree with some
of Governor Palin's positions, but added, "A lot of
social conservatives were pressuring her to sign that
legislation and she vetoed it, which had the effect of
providing domestic-partner benefits." He also said
Palin has not used gay issues in her campaigns in order to
get elected in the same way that politicians like Mitt
Romney have. (Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate)
