The Texas GOP Wants To Punish Straight People Who Support Gay Rights?

It might not be as hotly anticipated as one of the Twilight novels, but the Texas Republican Party has released its 2010 party platform. And the gays have at least the equivalent of a chapter dedicated to them.

But consider this work of literature a tragedy. That's because the 2010 GOP platform in Texas literally supports laws that criminalize sodomy, and also suggests that straight people who support same-sex marriage should be penalized with jail time.

Texas, Uganda. Uganda, Texas. I think you two will really hit it off.

That's a comparison that wakingupnow.com makes after looking at the language in the GOP's platform, and anti-gay language coming out of Uganda. And the similarities are a bit jarring.

For instance, the official GOP line in Texas, when it comes to sodomy is striking: gay people should be arrested for having any sort of sexual contact with someone of the same-sex inside their own bedrooms. That's my paraphrase, but trust the direct quote.

"We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy," the GOP platform reads. Meaning that even though the U.S. Supreme Court overturned sodomy laws last decade (ironically in a case that stemmed from Texas), Texas Republicans would like the state to have the power to criminalize LGBT folks for having sex.

Of course, if you think the Texas GOP treats sodomy with harsh gloves, wait until you see what they want to do to straight people who help gay folks get married.

"We support legislation that would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and for any civil official to perform a marriage ceremony for such," reads the GOP platform.

As wakingupnow.com notes, the use of the word "felony" there seemingly indicates prison time. That means that if a straight person were to aid and abet a gay couple with tying the knot in the Lone Star State, the Texas GOP would like to see that person serve mandatory jail time.

Sure, the comparison to Uganda is a bit facetious. After all, Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill calls for the death penalty or life imprisonment for LGBT people who have sex with someone of the same gender, and calls for multiple-year jail terms for straight people who don't help out perceived homosexuals.

But it is pretty shocking that in 2010, a state GOP, even if it's in a deep red corner of the country, would support criminalizing queer folks and the straight people who support them. What's even worse is that two years ago, the Texas chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans tried to dissuade the state GOP from adopting such a medieval platform, to no avail.

The Texas GOP platform concludes with a jarring assessment of homosexuality that's so embedded in the days of Anita Bryant, one wonders if the wording has changed at all since the mid-1970s.

"We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases," the platform reads.

Sheesh. Anyone think that Laura Bush can knock some sense into these folks, so that the 2012 platform comes out looking a little more American, and a little less Ugandan?

Photo credit: "G" jewels g is for grandma