The Republican Party of Texas has come under pitched media attack for adopting its latest platform, which affirms natural marriage, the right to life, and America’s status as “one nation under God” while rejecting Drag Queen Story Hour and punishing people who do not use someone’s preferred pronouns. But organizations that support faith and family say that the overall document shows the Texas GOP fearlessly upholding its conservative convictions.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out that although the platform seems “consistent” with previous state party platforms, “the Left is mad, because Texans and other conservatives haven’t given in and just gone silent — which is ultimately what they want.” Seeing the full extent of the Left’s agenda has made Americans “more resolute in standing for these core value issues than they have been in the past.”
Conservatives and Christians who believe in biblical values and the Constitution find that “they’re vilified — and it’s not just their opinions: They’re vilified as being evil themselves for holding that opinion,” David Barton of WallBuilders told Perkins during “Washington Watch” on Monday. “That’s where you’re starting to see a lot more pushback.”
The platform begins by saying, “We believe in ‘The laws of nature and nature’s God.’” It also affirms the party’s belief in the “sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from fertilization to natural death,” as well as “the traditional marriage of a natural man and a natural woman.”
America as “established by our nation’s founders, [consists] of limited civil government jurisdiction under the natural laws of God.” Since the Bill of Rights recognizes the God-given freedom of religion, church “services or other church functions ever again be shut down or suspended by over-reaching civil authorities under any pretext whatever” — a reference to COVID-19 lockdowns that often selectively targeted houses of worship while leaving abortion facilities and marijuana dispensaries open.
The platform views parental rights as “foundational to Western society and shall be respected” by the government.
“Drag Queen Story Hour shall not be part of educational programming in public schools, libraries, or any other taxpayer-funded program for children,” the platform holds. It also bars the “distribution of condoms and contraception through public schools” and supports a law requiring “Texas schools and libraries to filter inappropriate and/or harmful content, such as pornography, for minors.”
“We oppose any attempt to criminalize and/or penalize anyone for the wrong use of pronouns,” the platform adds. Texas delegates adopted the language shortly after a school in Wisconsin opened a harassment investigation against two children for refusing to use another student’s preferred pronouns.
The platform would require male athletes to compete exclusively against other males in high school and collegiate sports, a view supported by 61% of Americans in a recent poll. “The official position of the Texas schools shall be that there are only two genders: biological male and biological female,” the platform says.
In the place of controversial sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) ideology or critical race theory, public universities should offer students “a comprehensive program of instruction in Western civilization, American institutions, and free-market liberty principles.” All schools should emphasize the “assimilation of diverse racial and ethnic groups” into the nation, including the common use of the English language.
Delegates strongly support conscience rights, including the right to refuse to participate in “abortion … human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, eugenic screenings, genetic engineering, euthanasia, assisted suicide … vaccines, and the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration.”
“We oppose riots, vandalism, and looting and condemn such conduct,” the platform adds, a clear reference to riots over the summer of 2020 that cost insurance companies alone between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Most media attacks fixated on the Texas GOP’s decision to “affirm God’s biblical design for marriage and sexual behavior between one biological man and one biological woman, which has proven to be the foundation for all great nations in Western civilization.”
The Supreme Court created the “constitutional right” to same-sex marriage in 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges. Before the legally dubious ruling, 45 states — including California — had democratically voted to preserve marriage, and only three (Maine, Maryland, and Washington) adopted same-sex marriage by popular referendum. One month after the ruling, only 42% of Americans supported redefining marriage, while a roughly equal number were willing to admit they opposed it. “That’s only seven years ago. And Republicans are in Texas saying, ‘Hey, we still believe in the traditional family. We still believe in male and female. We still believe in traditional genders.’”
Multiple media accounts have criticized the Texas GOP platform for saying, “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice.” Approximately 95 out of every 100 Americans is straight, according to a Gallup poll. Former “Star Trek” actor George Takei insisted, “The Texas GOP is practicing fascism,” a political philosophy that requires the centralization of political power at the national level, the opposite of the Texas Republican Party’s platform. Donald Trump Jr. also criticized the party for not allowing the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT Republican-aligned organization, a booth at the convention.
The Texas GOP platform rejects “the concept of a One World Government, or The Great Reset,” opposes the “Environmental, Social Governance (ESG) scheme,” and supports auditing or abolishing the Federal Reserve System.
“Texas, which is a very red state, said, ‘Look, we’re just not going to be pushed around in this anymore,” Barton insisted. “Here’s what we believe. And this is where we’re standing.”
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
