SAN ANTONIO - In an obscure suite on the 31st floor of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, a group of about 20 gays, lesbians and supporters attending this week's Texas Republican Convention held a reception and press conference Thursday to denounce the part of the Texas Republican Party platform that opposes gay marriage.
Most of the people at the conference were members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gays and gay rights supporters who consider themselves, by principle, Republican.
Rumors have been circulating that certain delegates to the convention want to further specify in the party platform that officials who minister same-sex unions will be punished by the law, Texas Log Cabin chapter president Andy Hendricks said.
"It's just ludicrous and showing the hatred and intolerance of the Christian conservatives," Hendricks said. "I've been a Republican since I can remember, and I've been gay since I can remember. Being a Republican to me means low taxes, strong defense, limited government and personal responsibility."
Allowing individual states to make their own decisions on whether to allow gay marriage is in line with Republican ideology concerning states' rights, he said.
Patrick Guerriero, the national president of the Log Cabin Republicans, said his biggest fear is the possibility that the proposed U.S. Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage will pass.
Focusing energy on an "unnecessary proposal" detracts from other party priorities, such as the gravity of the state of war with Iraq and terrorism, he said.
"It's funny, but it seems that the radical right, the people who are making proposals such as [the constitutional amendment] are more obsessed with gay people than we are," Guerriero said. "It's a crazy obsession they need to get over."
Many Republicans are opposed to the idea of gay unions of any kind.
Jonas Nelson, a UT political science sophomore who attended the GOP state convention, said he stands behind the party platform in its current form, which opposes gay unions. Nelson said he has no problem with gay people and thinks punishing homosexuality is "extreme," but added that he does not believe gays should have the same marital rights as heterosexual couples.
"The state law of Texas only recognizes a marriage between a man and a woman, and I support that," said Chris Stevens, chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party. "I don't necessarily think they should be put in prison for [homosexual acts], but I don't think it should be a state-sanctioned activity."
Stevens cited the example of the fall of ancient Rome, which he says acknowledged homosexuality as legitimate. Although there was not just one single reason for the fall of the Roman democracy, homosexual unions may have been a contributing factor, he said.
"Until the '70s, the word homosexual described an activity, not a person," he said. "I don't believe in sexual orientation, I believe people choose to do things."
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