June 20 (UPI) — Republicans in Texas adopted a party platform over the weekend that rejects the results of the 2020 presidential election, calls homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and rebukes GOP senators who negotiated a bipartisan gun agreement.
Texans approved the far-right platform during the Texas State Republican Convention, which ended Saturday.
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The more than 270 resolutions were presented in a 40-page document that states the Texas Republican Party believes the election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States violated the Constitution and that there was “substantial election fraud in key metropolitan areas.”
The party approved the unfounded and debunked election fraud allegations while calling on all Republicans to “ensure election integrity.”
Republican-led states have been seeking to implement voting restrictions as election integrity measures in the wake of former President Donald Trump losing the 2020 general election, which Trump administration officials deemed the most secure in U.S. history.
Despite this evidence, the Texas GOP said it rejected the results of the election and “hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States.”
The move comes amid a series of congressional hearings by a bipartisan select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The hearings have presented a case that blames Trump for inciting an insurrection attempt to overthrow the results of the election.
The Texas GOP also adopted the policy that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” and that it opposes “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
“We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin, and we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values,” it states. “No one should be granted special legal status based on their LGBTQ+ identification.”
Texas has sought to implement a series of laws affecting LGBTQ people, including a bill that restricts transgender youth participation in sports and another censoring discussions of gender identity in school. Gov. Greg Abbott also issued a directive for state officials to investigate the parents of transgender youth who receive gender-affirming care, which was blocked by a state judge earlier this month.
The document also rejects a bipartisan gun agreement fashioned by senators following several high-profile mass shootings, including one at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 students and two teachers.
The platform rejected the legislation, stating “all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God-given rights.”
It also rebuked the 10 Republican senators who negotiated the bill, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who was booed during the event.
“An entire classroom was massacred with an AR-15 just 280 miles from this stage, and the Texas GOP is loudly booing someone for proposing even the mildest of gun safety legislation,” the Texas Democratic Party tweeted.
James Wesolek, communications director of the Republican Party of Texas, said resolutions on Biden and rebuking the Republican senators were approved during a voice vote Saturday with those concerning homosexuality and others approved by a platform committee using paper ballots, the results of which were still pending late Sunday, The New York Times reported.
Mar 28, 2023
