The Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, after careful and thorough deliberation, has adopted the following positions on a selected set of Senate and House bills introduced in the 2021 legislative session. After canvassing all our member chapters, the Board of the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas deemed these selected bills to be of special importance to its members across the state, and to the people of Texas as a whole. The Board evaluated each bill in relation to the core values and beliefs of the Republican Party, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights; and to the mission of the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas. We respect the important and difficult work of every legislator, and thank each one for his or her service to our state.
SUPPORT
Constitutional Carry – HB 1927 & Related Companion Bills in Regular Session
STATUS: Passed in Regular Session
As the state legislature prepares to vote, we stand with the Texas Young Republicans, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, all our other friends and allies, and all Texans who value their freedoms and safety, in support of Constitutional Carry for Texas. To quote the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas: “No adult, law abiding Texan should need to ask permission to exercise their fundamental right of self protection from government. Constitutional Carry is fairly common in a number of States and is not an issue. Texas should not be behind on this issue.”
Protecting the Purpose of Title IX in School Sports (segregation by sex vs identity) – SB 29/HB 4042 in Regular Session, SB 2 in 1st C.S. and 2nd C.S., SB 3 in 3rd C.S.
STATUS: Passed in 3rd Called Session
Log Cabin Republicans of Texas supports House Bill 4042, and its companion Senate Bill 29. While we may have reservations about the bills’ lack of nuance allowing schools latitude to address very unique situations, and about the issues it leaves unresolved that will certainly arise if this bill becomes law,[ii] we nonetheless believe this law takes a necessary step in protecting interscholastic athletic activities that are currently segregated by biological sex for the benefit and safety of both girls and boys.[iii] For our full explanation, and FAQs on this issue, please refer to http://logcabintexas.us/lcr-texas-statement-faqs-hb-4042/.
Election Integrity – SB 7 & Companion Bills in Regular Session, SB 1 in 1st C.S. and 2nd C.S.
STATUS: Passed in 2nd Called Session
Log Cabin Republicans of Texas supports this effort at improving the integrity of, and thus confidence in, the elections held in our state. Notwithstanding media hype or news headlines that characterize the bill’s terms as “voting restrictions” or the like, the bill restricts little except for modest measures to help ensure votes cast are by real persons, and without undue influence by others. Regarding claims that bill “restricts early voting hours,” all the bill really does is define the hours more clearly, and no one is likely to notice any reduction in voting hours. The biggest issue is the “restriction” of the issuance of mail-in ballots to persons who did not request one. But, of course, this issue is actually new with local jurisdictions taking it upon themselves in 2020, with COVID being the justification, to attempt to send unsolicited ballots. The obvious problem with unsolicited mail-in ballots is that millions of people move every year, and inevitably thousands of ready-to-vote ballots would end up in mailboxes for people that no longer live at the delivered address. This poses problems all around, especially for the persons who moved that could find themselves unable to cast a regular ballot.
The bill also clarifies the terms under which poll watchers may observe the conduct of elections, ensuring they can meaningfully observe, and cannot be prevented from duly and legally observing, as happened in some instances in the last presidential election. The right to vote is guaranteed to every citizen. But that right is worthless if the integrity and security of an election, and the principle of one citizen, one vote, are not also secured.
Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform – HB 1441 & Related Bills in Regular Session
STATUS: Not Passed in Regular Session
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is as vital as the First and Second in securing the liberty against abuse of government powers by the state against its citizens, and the proliferation of cases where law enforcement agencies employ forfeiture to take someone’s property then sell it, and keep the profits to fund their departments has alarmed criminal justice advocates and scholars across the political spectrum. A unanimous 2019 Supreme Court decision against this excess reaffirms the validity of these concerns.
School Civics Reform and Critical Race Theory – SB 3 in 2nd C.S.
STATUS: Passed in 2nd Called Session
Log Cabin Republicans supports this bill that helps preserve the integrity and value of our education system in preparing new generations of citizens for civic life in a free representative democracy. Teaching future generations of voting citizens the basic historical facts of the founding of our country, the actual content and meaning of our nation’s founding documents, with an honest accounting of our shortfalls, is essential for the understanding of the liberties we have inherited from our nation’s founding and its subsequent and continuing evolution into a more perfect union; and for preservation of the sense of shared nationhood necessary for securing those liberties. Furthermore, protecting students and teachers from undue political pressure from school officials to espouse or promote ideologies they oppose is nothing more than a basic reinforcement of our free speech rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment. Lastly, prohibiting the official teaching or indoctrination of blatant racist and sexist ideologies (be they called Critical Race Theory or something else) that aim to classify students – and everyone else – as inferior or superior (morally or otherwise), or as obligated or subservient to one group or another, based on their race or sex, is not only completely justifiable, it is a sadly necessary reinforcement in our schools of our nation’s values of equal treatment under the law for all.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
* A strong national defense, and in the Second Amendment right of every citizen to bear arms.
* Low taxes, tight fiscal responsibility, and scarce regulations appropriate to a limited government.
* The First Amendment rights of free speech, religious liberty, and freedom of association, and of one’s right to property.
* The legal and political equality for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity status, under the framework of the Republican principles of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility.
We believe in working with Republicans of all stripes to define new, principled constitutional answers to address the many issues confronting the party today, rather than have them settled for us by those who favor more government intrusive solutions.
Log Cabin Republicans of Texas believe that we must win the war of ideas, with Republican ideas, and that we must all as Americans join to achieve an evermore perfect advance towards the party’s wise and wonderful stated commitment to the ideals of limited government, freedom of belief and conscience, of the autonomous, self-reliant individual – of what it means to possess true personal independence; and that under our Creator and under our law, “all men are created equal.” That in advancing that common cause, we will make the party stronger, and thus help secure the future of our country, which after all, is the whole point of our party’s existence.
Join us in working together to advance Republican principles.
Marco A. Roberts, Chairman