Log Cabin Republicans cut ties with transgender movement

The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) announced Thursday that it would halt its support for the transgender community, calling itself an “LGB advocacy organization.”

LCR President Ross Hemminger wrote in an op-ed published to the conservative outlet “Townhall” that the move signaled an adjustment to its “national advocacy focus,” saying the organization wanted to distance itself from transgender activists — who he claimed fostered an “unnecessary and discomfiting focus on America’s youth.”

The group, centered around gay conservatives and their allies, added transgender people to its mission in 2015, according to Hemminger’s op-ed. LCR previously used the acronym “LGBT” — short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — on its website but has since removed the “t” from such references.

“We are an LGB advocacy organization,” he wrote, “as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be.”

Hemminger added that the move was in response to what the organization believed were pushes by the transgender community to “teach radical gender ideology” and put “biological men in women’s sports regardless of the consequences.”

“Most offensively, they support gender reassignment treatments for minors, often without the knowledge or consent of the parents,” Hemminger continued. “Their view of the gay community is based on today’s radical transgender activists with their unnecessary and discomfiting focus on America’s youth.”

He went on to clarify that the decision does not disqualify anyone from affiliating themselves with the organization, adding that membership “remains open to all conservatives.”

LCR has chapters in more than 40 states and claims to be the nation’s largest and oldest organization serving LBG conservatives, according to its website.

The decision to exclude transgender people from its mission follows a Supreme Court decision allowing states to bar transgender athletes from certain sports. Nearly 30 states have instituted laws since the decision.

These debates have extended to sport governing bodies, with the NCAA similarly banning transgender athletes from the women’s category in 2025 — while men’s categories are still open to all eligible student-athletes. Recently, the WNBA has faced backlash from conservatives for some players’ and staffs’ support of transgender athletes.

“The new era of gender identity politics is not the movement (LCR) supported and fought for,” Hellinger wrote.