This is a special invitation to all Log Cabin members, friends, and allies. Utah LCR along with the College Republicans on the U of U campus are hosting a special Senate Candidate Town Hall meeting this Wednesday, April 21st. We have already confirmed that six of the eight candidates will be there to answer questions and share their ideas with Republican State Delegates. We have 300 seats to fill and expect around 200 state delegates so there is plenty of room for all of you and your partners, friends, and guests to join with us.

If you are a state delegate it is critically important for you to attend as the candidates really want to meet each of you and find out where you stand on the issues affecting all of us every day, both GLBT issues and all issues in general. Even if you’re not a state delegate we still need you there to show these candidates who their constituents are, and how many of us that support GLBT issues will be voting in November.

The meeting will start at 7:00pm in the Saltair room in the Olpin Student Union Building. This room is in the northwest corner on the main floor past the main ballroom. Just follow the signs or ask at the main reception desk for directions. We have put together a very informative program with questions each candidate will need to respond to. After each group of questions all of you will be able to vote on weather the candidate did answer the question or not. This way the candidates will know immediately weather they answered or just skirted the issue right then, and that all the state delegate in attendance will know, too.

We have also invited all of the media and they need to see which candidates can actually answer these questions and where they really stand. Not all of our questions are GLBT related, but they are all relevant to what is happening in our daily lives such as health care, budget deficits, immigration, and more. If you really want to know where these Senate candidates stand then BE THERE! If there is a specific questions that you really want an answer to, please reply to this email with the question so we can get it included if possible.

Our next monthly meeting will be held Tuesday, April 6^th at 7:00pm in The Salt Lake City Library in the lower level.

We would like every state delegate that can attend to be there to discuss our position on issues that we want to ask the candidates.  We will be putting together a list of questions for our town hall meeting later in April – TBA.

PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Today the Utah Log Cabin Republicans join with all other Utah LGBT organizations in thanking the Salt Lake City Council for their unanimous support of Mayor Ralph Becker’s anti-discrimination ordinances. These ordinances will go a long way to bring fair treatment of all citizens in employment and housing. We salute the Utah Human Right Commission for their tireless work in bringing these issues to the Council.

Utah LCR also wants to recognize the support of the LDS church and all other religious organizations in the state that also support such efforts. Many of us in the Utah LGBT community have felt alienated from our religious roots because of our sexual orientation and/or identity, and this open public support brings us great comfort and hope for a better tomorrow.

We are working with a number of Utah Republican lawmakers to bring similar legislation to the entire state. Utah LCR encourages all Utah citizens to contact their legislators to voice their support for these initiatives. We also invite anyone interested in making a change in how Utah grows in the future to join the Log Cabin effort to register many within the LGBT community as Republicans and get them involved as delegates and precinct chairs. For more information contact Melvin Nimer at ut@logcabin.org or at 801-613-8359.

Cleve Jones, Grand Marshall of the Utah Pride Festival announced a call for a march on Washington, scheduled for October 11, 2009.  Cleve Jones is a long time gay rights activist who had a chance meeting with Harvey Milk on Castro Street and 18th Street that involved him in working along side openly gay political leader Harvey Milk. Jones is the founder of the NAMES project.

In the spirit of Harvey Milk Jones said, “We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states,”   Jones brought a message to Mormon leader and specifically the prophet with regards to theri role in supporting Prop 8, which overturned legal same-sex marriage in California.

“I’ve got a message for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve got two words from California … I’ve got two words for the prophet … Thank you. Thank you for uniting us. Thank you for galvanizing us.”

I have deliberately left off Republican. It is good for recruiting in places like the Pride festival where we seem to be the minority. More importantly, we are a conservative group. We identify with the Republican party. However, there is currently a debate raging inside our party as to what defines a good Republican. Of coarse, we at LCR believe it is real conservative values, and we along with other groups, are debating with the religious right for the right to define conservative and therefore Republican.

I believe that the religious right is not conservative. We hear Republicans upset with the government for interfering with banks, the auto industry and health care currently. We do not like the spending that goes with that government interference in a Free Market economy. We are also unhappy with with the way the government has botched Social Security and Medicare for the elderly and disabled. Almost all Republicans alike are in agreement in these things. Conservatives the country over feel the government needs to be smaller and more efficient, not bloated with new spending and new social programs that continue to eat away at our liberty and economic power globally.

We hailed the governments decision, under the Bush administration, to create some national standards for schools, as imperfect as it was. We also welcomed that the Bush administration opened up federal funding to religious charities that provide services to the homeless and underprivileged. Creating a better playing field in education and making federal grants available to all institutions including religious ones creates fairness and equality. It does not punish those with ro without beliefs and lets all of the various groups compete with the same guidelines.

These are all good conservative principles. The government should be limited and create simple guidelines for us to share, and compete in, without concern for undo pressure from the big guys, and free of government micromanagement. The religious right wants all of these things. I find it funny then that they consistently want government at all levels to interfere in how we live our lives. They do not want the government in health care, but they want the government in our bedrooms. This contradiction is huge. The social agenda of the religious right does not meet the criteria for good limited government. It espouses limited government unless….

Many of our personal freedoms took a hit under the Republican Social agenda. This is what we must undo and repair in order to improve the quality of the lives all Americans lead.

As Republicans that espouse conservative principles, we should do all we can to get true conservatives back in charge of the party.

I believe the government should use the “my rights end where your rights begin” motto as a measuring test more often. The government should make sure the borders are secure, and that our national defense is strong and capable. They should want me, to not murder, steal, or defraud my neighbors. They should ensure that companies are responsible to the environment. These things affect us all. Abortion, stem cell research, and civil marriage for all, do not inherently meet this standard. These are almost exclusively individual or family decisions that have no impact on society at large. The do not infringe on the rights of others. Asking the government to micromanage or disallow individuals to make decisions on these things is very intrusive and inhibits our personal freedoms. We should resist any and all attempts to do this. Allow religions to continue to debate and change the minds of our people individually, but get the government out of the business of sanctioning any one belief system.

These ideas are a few of the reasons I am a Republican, and why, as a conservative, I want the party back in the hands of conservatives and out of the religious right. They have a place in the party, but under leadership from the religious right, we have failed to deliver on the promise that is America. Just like the Democrats, we have ballooned the national debt, spread our military too thin, allowed our border to leak like a sieve and seen more large government programs, that have eaten away our freedom while failing to provide all of the promised security we traded it for. Remembering real conservative values is the way to ensure the Republican party is more relevant in this political climate. Let’s use these values to demonstrate the true difference between the two parties and let the people choose.

Why Common Ground Failed

We took the time to talk with each legislator that voted no on all the common ground bills during the 2009 legislative session.  We found that all of the bills had 2 common problems

1. There was not enough time to prepare the legislature for the bills and ensure they were ready to accept and vote favorably for them
2. They all came with “gay” theme and seemed to create special groups which most legislators oppose

In addition to these general feelings each bill had its’ own troubles.

Right for co-habitating people to sue:
This bill was introduced into the Senate Judiciary.  This panel will have a hard time with anything that could be considered “gay” legislation.  Must be attempted based on Common law statues.

Anti-decimation in Housing/Employment
This bill had 2 problems

1. It created a special group
2. The housing portion has issues with guidelines from HUD

Hospital visitation/inheritance rights
This bill had 2 challenges:

1. It created a special group
2. Most legislators felt that inheritance is already easy to obtain with various tools already available to anyone

Adoption rights for co-habitating people to adopt based on State custody for the minor or adoptee parental permission.
This bill had issues primarily due to misinformation.  Many legislators saw this as just allowing gay couples to adopt and were opposed.  Several mentioned that while singles could adopt, co-habitating couples were less stable than married couples and they did not think that was in the best interest of the child.

In addition to these notes, we found that many legislators felt that some or all of these protections were needed, but the language needs fine-tuned.  They also felt a campaign to inform the public would be good since many of these legislators are in swing districts and voting for these bills would have been political ammunition in the next election cycle.

We at Log Cabin Rebuplicans believe we have come up with a strategy that will help to pass much of the “common ground initiative” legislation .  This will include changes to the legislation and changes in sponsorship.  Additionally we believe that we need an educational campaign to help the public to understand what each bill does and to help insulate the republican legislatures that sign on to sponsor or choose to vote in support of these ammended bills.