PRESS RELEASE

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Utah Log Cabin Republicans are pleased to announce that Governor and Mrs. Herbert have invited our group to the Governor’s mansion for an informal reception to allow the Governor and First Lady the opportunity to get to know the leaders of the Utah LCR organization as well as many of the leaders within the LGBT community. This will be the second time that Utah LCR has been invited to the mansion. Former Governor Jon Huntsman also hosted an informal reception for Utah LCR in July, 2008. The reception will be held Monday evening, November 16, 2009 at 7:00pm.

Utah Log Cabin Republicans is the local chapter of the National Log Cabin Republicans representing the conservative members of Utah’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community. The Log Cabin Republicans believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and support the basic fundamental principles of the Republican party. There are over 20,000 members of Log Cabin nationwide, with offices in Washington, D.C. and chapters throughout the U.S.

More information can be found on the national website: www.logcabin.org and on the Utah LCR website: www.logcabinutah.org or by contacting Melvin Nimer – President, Utah LCR at 801-613-8359 or ut@logcabin.org.

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.

Hi all,
James here again. As we prepare for the 2010 election I look around the Republican table for real national leaders.

So far our team of national leader is the same tired and losing team we have had for the last 4 years. Many are getting to be too old and the new “stars” have been troubled, by affairs and corruption.

Many of these people, Pallin, Romney, Sanford, Ensign believe in many conservative values, but let us remember that failing to live up to conservative principle’s is what got our collective asses kicked.

We failed to be fiscally conservative. We failed to lessen government in our lives. We failed to ensure the government was a neutral observer in our social lives.

The Republican revolution of 1994 lead by Newt was about Less government, and less government interference and therefore less spending, more state control and smaller government for less taxes. It was this class that balanced the budged with a democrat in the White House.

In 2000 Karl Rove took over. He used two presidential elections to push a social based agenda to give the Republicans a stronger majority. We ignored all other “true” conservative values. The result; two wars, a bloated government, that was more invasive, massive debt build up and serious social meddling. The American public gave us the benefit of the doubt in 04, but was fed up by 06. We failed to see the writing on the wall and continued down our, destructive social agenda above all else, path. We were completely trashed in 08.

The reaction to this defeat should be a return to core Republican values. We have a great opportunity, as the Democrats, drunk with power, keep screwing up, to ensure we balance the odds. Most of the time it take 2 election cycles to get back into balance. We have a unique opportunity to become more balanced in 2010 and so far we are blowing it!

We lost because we adopted the wrong strategy. Let us not make that same mistake twice. The principle of limited government interference does not blend well with demands from the left and right for major government interference on only a few issues, weather it is stem cell research or health care. Both are massive invasions of personal issues by the federal government.

And this kind of federal meddling is what make most Americans frustrated with government.

Everyone deserve a seat at the table and everyone’s opinions matter. We must stop ignoring those with somewhat different opinions in our party if we are to remain relevant in the next 100 years. I personally do not want to wait for Democrats to screw up to have more say in the federal government.

If they had played their cards right, they could have sidelined our party for a very long time after the complete failure for us to live up to our own values.

The time has come to get together and start listening to each other; to stop dictating to the majority. The jockeying for position among the most right wing of our party is such a mistake. The record speaks for itself on these issues. Those that only hold up their social record, fail! We have to have real leadership and come up with real alternatives to what is being done in Washington. We must stop being the party of “no” and become the party of ideas.

After failing to live up to our own standards it will take a while for the majority of Americans to trust us again. We must work extra hard and hope the Democrats keep tackling too much for us to regain the public trust.

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.”

New Hampshire this week became the 6th state in the country to allow same sex couple to marry. Like Maine, New Hampshire voted through the legislature to allow same sex marriage and the govenor, who is personally opposed to same sex marriage, signed it within hours of passage. No court order needed!

This is exciting. This leaves only Rhode Island in New England without approval of same sex marriage. There is a bill to allow this in the state but it is expected to fail this year.

New York is currently debating the subject and Log cabin is in the middle of this debate encouraging Republicans to provide the final crucial votes for equal marriage rights.

Maine will allow a citizen referendum on the new law for same sex marriage. We must work to ensure this fundamental right is not taken away from our friends and “family” in Maine.

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.

Pride season is here!

Here are some things to be proud of as a Log Cabin Republican

• In New England, 57 Republican state legislators have voted for marriage equality – providing crucial votes in every state
• 18 Republican House of Representatives members voted for Hate Crimes laws, seven being original co-sponsors
• Republican Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut signed Marriage Equality legislation into law
• In post-election research, it was found that Log Cabin’s “Republicans Against Prop 8″ campaign was one of the most effective and quantitatively successful outreach groups in the larger “No on 8″ coalition.

— from Log Cabin Republicans – Los Angeles

There is the first Utah LGBT Health Fair for  community at Huntsman Cancer institute on May 16th from 11-2 PM see details below.

Also there is Pride on June 6th and June 7th.  Parade on June the 7th at 10am.  We will have a booth and need volunteers to take shift manning it.

The first Utah LGBT Health Fair, the Hunstman Cancer Institute is reaching out to the LGBT community so please come and support this effort and there will be screening, speakers, testings and refreshments.  There will be FREE parking and NO entrance fees.

Where: Huntsman Cancer Institute, 2000 Circle of Hope, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (head east on 100 South and continue past the University of Utah Hospital)

When: Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Come learn about health issues and services for the LGBT community.

Activities include:

• Information booths
• Health screening
• Demonstrations
• Speakers
• Light refreshments

Organizations involved include:

• the Utah AIDS Foundation
• Utah Pride Center, PFLAG
• American Cancer Society
• TransAction
• VOAUtah
• Salt Lake Valley Health Department
• Planned Parenthood of Utah
• Ogden OUTreach Resource
• Huntsman Cancer Institute
• Jones Waldo
• Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Resource Center @ the University of Utah
• Endmethnow.org
• Clinic 1A at the University of Utah
• Cornerstone Counseling
• University of Utah Department of Radiology
• Salt Lake Police Department
• IJ and Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center
• Pride in your Community
• Health Policy Project
• Lumen Episcopal/Lutheran Campus Ministry
• Club Tri-Angles
• JAM
• Gastronomy
• South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society
• University of Utah Counseling Center
• Affirmation SLC
• Silverado Hospice and others

For more information call the Huntsman Cancer Information Service at 1-888-424-2100 or e-mail patient.education@hci.utah.edu

Maine became the 5th state to allow same sex marriage on Wed, May 6th, 2009. The state will allow “any two people” to wed starting this summer. This was historic in several ways.

First, it was not court mandated.
Second, It was approved in the legislature with little opposition
Third, It was signed by the governor straight away.

We are seeing a trend in the northeast that is encouraging.

New Hampshire has a similar measure expected to be on the governor’s desk by next week and Rhode Island has a bill before its’ legislature that may not pass this years but seems sure to pass soon.

New York’s governor has indicated he will send a same sex marriage bill to the legislature soon as well. I spoke with the Hudson Valley Chapter President of Log Cabin last week about this and he indicated that Republican leadership in the legislature has been told it will be ok to vote for same sex marriage this time around. New York already recognizes same sex marriages performed legally from other states and the world.

Lastly, the Washington DC city council approved a measure this week to recognize all marriages including same sex marriages performed throughout the various states.

The tide is turning in our direction on this issue and we applaud all of the Republicans that has crossed the isle to vote for equal civil right for our LGBT community on this issue.

On Sat. Night, at the national convention, the Log Cabin Republicans will honor the 6 Republicans legislators in Vermont who voted to approve the new marriage rights for same sex couples.  They all voted for passage in the regular debate and in the override session to override the veto the Republican governor had issued.  Like our national friends we applaud those individuals who resisted the pressure from all sides and voted with their hearts to provide equal rights to more people in Vermont.

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