Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) is an organization of LGB members of the Republican Party and straight allies who work to increase inclusion within the party, and to voice Republican values among the LGB community. LCR has over 30 chapters from about half of the states and the District of Columbia.
LCR began in 1977 during opposition to an anti-gay ballot initiative in California, defeated in 1978. The organization has endorsed or withheld endorsement of Republican presidential candidates based on perceived agreement on varying issues regarding equality and inclusion.
Log Cabin Republicans filed a federal lawsuit against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) government policy, which went to trial in 2010. The presiding judge ruled in favor of LCR in September, finding the policy unconstitutional, though the decision was vacated a year later after DADT was repealed in December 2010. LCR officially added transgender rights to its platform in 2015, but dropped it in August 2026, rebranding themselves as an LGB advocacy group.
LCR has no official position regarding abortion and believes in a strong national defense. In the 2020s, several state chapters took positions against transgender rights, which brought criticism from broader advocacy and rights groups. Other critics say LCR is too centrist regarding party principles. More recent criticism involves LCR's continued support for President Trump after his administrations' actions against certain rights for transgender people.
History Log Cabin Republicans was formed in 1977 in California as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching in public schools, and proposed legislation that authorized the firing of those teachers who publicly "supported" homosexuality.
While mounting his imminent presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan publicly expressed his opposition to the discriminatory policy. Reagan's condemnation of the bill—epitomized in a letter sent to a pro-Briggs group, excerpts of which were re-printed in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1978—played an influential role in the eventual defeat of the Briggs Initiative.
In the midst of this victory, gay conservatives in California created the Log Cabin Republicans. The group initially proposed to name themselves Lincoln Club, but found that name was already in use by the Lincoln Club of Orange County, another California Republican organization, so the name Log Cabin Republicans was chosen as an alternative title. This designation calls attention to the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. The Log Cabin Republicans suggest that Lincoln founded the Republican Party on the philosophies of liberty and equality. These principles, Log Cabin argues, are consistent with their platform of an inclusive Republican Party.
1992 presidential election The 1992 Log Cabin Republican convention was held in Spring, Texas, a Houston exurb. The main point of discussion was whether or not LCR would endorse the re-election of President George H. W. Bush. The group voted to deny that endorsement because Bush did not denounce anti-gay rhetoric at the 1992 Republican National Convention.
1996 presidential election In August 1995, the campaign of Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, returned the LCR's $1,000 campaign contribution.Barron, C. (2004). "A Big Question for Republicans", Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Vol. 11. pp. 27–29. The campaign returned the contribution after the openly lesbian columnist, Deb Price, of the Detroit News, asked about it after she saw it on a public report from the Federal Election Commission. The campaign sent a written statement to Price saying that Dole was in "100% disagreement with the agenda of the Log Cabin Republicans."Tafel, pp. 167–168. The finance office of the campaign had solicited the contribution from LCR. At the event where it was given, Dole had personally spoken with LCR's then-executive director, Rich Tafel, about the group and about AIDS legislation it was promoting in the Senate. Weeks earlier, Dole agreed to co-sponsor the legislation after a meeting with Tafel at the campaign's headquarters.Tafel, pp. 164–166 It resulted in a front-page story in The New York Times, penned by Richard L. Berke, then-chief political reporter for the daily.
As reporters, including Berke, were seeking confirmation of the story before it broke, Dole's finance chairman, John Moran, asked Tafel not to speak to the press and that Tafel's "steadfastness and statesmanship at this moment will be handsomely appreciated in the long run by the campaign." Tafel refused.Tafel, p. 168.
Pundits accused Dole of being a "flip-flopper and a hypocrite." Editorials ran in major newspapers, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Times of London, condemning Dole's action, joined by radio commentators Rush Limbaugh and Don Imus.Tafel, pp. 169–170.Woodward, p. 251. Under the pressure, Dole admitted during an October 1995 press briefing on Capitol Hill that he regretted the decision to return the check, and that his campaign was responsible for it without consulting him.Tafel, p. 171. "I think if they'd have consulted me, we wouldn't have done that, wouldn't have returned it," Dole said.Woodward, p. 284. Dole later told Washington Post editor and author Bob Woodward that the LCR episode was a "mistake" because the decision to return the check "gets into Bob Dole the person. It's not so much about Bob Dole the candidate. It's the person. Is he tolerant? Does he tolerate different views? Tolerate someone with a different lifestyle?" He added, "This is basic, this is what people ought to know about you. Are you going to just do this because it sounds good politically?"Woodward, p. 286.
LCR's leadership met with Dole's coalitions manager to discuss an endorsement after Dole's reversal.Tafel, p. 172. Among various items, Tafel demanded there be no gay bashing in the speeches from the podium of the 1996 Republican National Convention, nor any anti-homosexual signs on the convention floor. He also wanted to see a gay person address the convention and a public request from Dole's campaign for the LCR nod.Tafel, p. 173 On the closing night of the convention, Stephen Fong, then-president of the San Francisco chapter, spoke at the dais as part of a series of speeches from "mainstreet Americans," but was not publicly identified as gay.Tafel, p. 174. Nevertheless, his presence on the podium for the organization and for the gay and lesbian community "was something that would have been unimaginable four years earlier," Tafel later wrote. Fong was the first openly gay speaker at a Republican National Convention.
Two days later, Dole spokesperson Christina Martin told a reporter that the campaign "welcomed the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans." LCR voted to endorse Dole for President, and then-Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour approved the use of the RNC's press briefing room for Tafel, LCR's convention delegates and officers of its national board to announce their decision.
Later in the campaign, Tafel met with Dole's chief aide Sheila Burke, and the remaining demands LCR made for their endorsement were met. In a statement released by LCR, and confirmed to reporters by the campaign, Dole had pledged to maintain an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal workforce and full funding for AIDS programs.
2000 presidential election The group endorsed George W. Bush in 2000.
2004 presidential election Due to his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, the group declined to endorse the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004. The proposed amendment would have constitutionally defined marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. Bush's defense of the FMA led the group to vote 22 to 2 against an endorsement of his reelection. The Palm Beach County chapter in Florida did endorse him, resulting in the revocation of their charter.
2008 presidential election In September 2008, LCR voted to endorse the John McCain–Sarah Palin ticket in the 2008 presidential election. LCR President Patrick Sammon said the most important reason for their support was McCain's opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
2012 presidential election On 23 October 2012, LCR officially endorsed Mitt Romney despite Romney's commitment to a constitutional amendment barring gays and lesbians from marriage nationwide and his objection to the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on military service. In a public statement, LCR said it supported Romney due to the "gravity of the economic and national security issues currently at stake". Moreover, LCR expressed its hope that Romney would reconsider his opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but he did not.
2016 presidential election On October 22, 2016, the board members of LCR voted not to endorse the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump. In defiance, the LCR statewide chapters of Colorado, Georgia, and Texas, along with the LCR countywide chapter of Orange County, California and the LCR city chapters of Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Cleveland, Ohio, voted to endorse Donald Trump.
Nationwide, exit polls estimated that Trump received the lowest percentage of the LGBT vote by any Republican presidential candidate since the metric was first included in presidential polls in 1992. Trump received only 14% of the LGBT vote, a significant decline from Mitt Romney who received 22% in 2012. On November 9, 2016, the national LCR congratulated Donald Trump on his victory.
2020 presidential election
In November 2018, Jerri Ann Henry became the first woman to serve as Log Cabin executive director. A month later, she said in a television interview that, while she perceived Trump as having been "vocally supportive" of LGBT people compared to other Republican presidents and presidential candidates, there had nevertheless been "a lot of ups and downs in the last two years with some of the administration's actions."
On August 16, 2019, more than a year prior to the election, the Log Cabins endorsed Trump. Chair Robert Kabel and vice chair Jill Homan gave their reasons for the endorsement in a Washington Post op-ed. Three women resigned in protest: board member Jennifer Horn (who earlier in the year had served as campaign manager for Trump's 2020 primary challenger Bill Weld), Log Cabin's first woman board member Sarah Longwell, and executive director Jerri Ann Henry.
NBC exit polls found that 27% of LGBT voters chose Trump. A subsequent online poll done on behalf of GLAAD and weighted for demographics found that 14% of LGBT voters chose Trump.
2024 presidential election In April 2024, Melania Trump was the guest of honor at a Log Cabin Republicans fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago, raising over $1 million according to organizers. This launched the Log Cabin "Road to Victory" program to reach voters in swing states and marked a rare appearance by Melania Trump at a political event. In July, she hosted a second LCR fundraiser at Trump Tower, raising $1.4 million. For the April appearance, Trump was paid $237,500 but the Log Cabin Republicans denied that they made the payment. An anonymous source told CNN that former first Trump administration official Richard Grenell made the payment. As of September 2024, it was not known if Trump was paid for the July appearance.