This past weekend the Republican Party of Texas adopted a new platform claiming that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.
“We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election and maintain that interim president Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States,” the text says.
The nearly 5,000 delegates who attended the Texas Republican Convention in Houston approved the document. “Texas Republicans rightly have no faith in the results of the 2020 election and we don’t care how many times elites tell us we have to,” party chairman Matt Rinaldi said in a statement.
The resolution urges Republicans to “work to ensure the integrity of the election” and vote and volunteer in the midterms to “overcome any potential fraud.”
On the other hand, the document includes a section stating that the state Republican party is against granting special legal status to homosexual men or women and that it supports people who oppose homosexuality on the basis of faith, religion or beliefs in “traditional values”.
“Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice, the text says. “We believe that no special legal rights should be granted or special status created for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin.”
The section also opposes the use of public funds for gay, transgender, or diversity and equity inclusion centers, as well as gender-affirming care, while supporting controversial counseling methods aimed at “converting” “members of the community.” LGBTQ community.
Texas does not have a law that prohibits conversion therapy. A wave of anti-LGBTQ bills has swamped red states this year, with Republican majorities specifically targeting the transgender community. Texas has passed laws that prohibit the participation of transgender youth in sports and prohibit discussion of sexual orientation or transgender identity in public schools.
The Movement Advancement Project gives Texas a low rating for LGBTQ rights. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) sparked a backlash earlier this year when he ordered state officials to investigate parents of transgender children who allow their children to undergo gender-affirming care, which state attorney general Ken Paxton called “child abuse.”
The party’s new platform was adopted during Gay Pride Month, a time when the LGBTQ community and supporters of the movement come together and organize events. The community has been on edge during the festivities this month after 31 members of the Patriot Front, a Texas-based far-right white supremacist organization, were arrested earlier this month in Idaho for conspiring to riot at a gay event. .
President Biden last week signed an executive order designed to protect the LGBTQ community from conservative state laws that impede access to health care resources and from laws that ban discussion of gender identity in schools. “My message to all young people: be yourself. You are loved. you are heard All of us on this stage have your back.”
