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Texas Republicans held their biennial convention over the weekend and approved revisions to their party’s 40-page platform which now includes resolutions declaring President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected, calling for the abolishing of abortion, the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and calling homosexuality “abnormal.”
The convention was roiled by right-wing agitators who verbally taunted and even physically assaulted Republican lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). Axios’s Ivana Saric notes that the platform changes “pull the party further right.”
“Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” the new platform reads. “We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin.”
“The section also opposes the use of public funds for homosexuality, transgender or diversity and equity inclusion centers as well as for gender-affirming care — while supporting controversial counseling methods intended to ‘convert’ members of the LGBTQ community,” the Hill added, noting that “Texas does not have a law banning conversion therapy.”
During the convention “The Fort Worth chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national Republican LGBTQ organization, was excluded from the event after they were not allowed to set up a booth,” reported Saric.
The document, which echoes former President Donald Trump’s debunked allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, calls for high GOP voter turnout to “overwhelm any possible fraud.”
The platform also says, “We urge that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, codified 1402 and updated in 1973, be repealed and not reauthorized.” The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark civil rights-era bill that banned racial discrimination in elections by prohibiting any voting rules that “results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race or color.
Other controversial resolutions in the platform include a rebuke of the state’s senior Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), who was booed while speaking at the convention, for his work on a bipartisan gun bill that would strengthen red flag laws in the wake of the Uvalde Elementary School massacre.
“Whereas those under 21 are most likely to be victims of violent crime and thus most likely to need to defend themselves. Whereas “red flag laws” violate one’s right to due process and are a pre-crime punishment of people not adjudicated guilty,” reads the platform, which adds:
Whereas waiting periods on gun purchases harm those who need to acquire the means of self defense in emergencies such as riots. Whereas all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights. We reject the so called “bipartisan gun agreement”, and we rebuke Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania).”
Texas Republicans also made clear that they wish to retain the right to secede from the United States if they so wish, writing into the platform:
“Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”
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