The Libertarian Party of Texas’s Chairman, Pat Dixon, wrote an excellent piece and with his permission I am reposting it here on LP.org the original post may be found here.
"I don’t know why you feel compelled to support a queer lifestyle when there are so many more important items on our agenda. Homosexuality is the primary cause of Aids and recognizing it as an acceptable lifestyle as a human rights issue is naive and unacceptable.
Please remove me from your mailing list."
I have never looked at a guy and thought "Wow, I want some of that!" The fact that some people do does not bother me. It does bother Republicans and Conservatives.
The former Libertarian Party member who sent me the nice note above probably never understood the principles of individual liberty. Sometimes people come to the Libertarian Party because they don’t think Republicans have done enough to reduce taxation and spending. However, they fail to appreciate that individual liberty is just as important as economic liberty. When we publicize our legislative agenda which includes the position to "legalize homosexuality," some current Libertarian Party members crawl back to the Republicans. That is where they belong.
Republicans and Conservatives (I will refer to them as ReCons for brevity) have taken their mandate from the 2010 election as a call for more control of your life. Tea Party supporters thought the ReCons would focus on economic liberty, but the meager actions of the ReCons on these issues have brought them scorn. The ReCons have instead focused their energy on homosexuality, abortion, and immigration. Does this make you a happy voter?
Abortion is a difficult issue and splits many in the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian parties. I believe that Ross Perot said it well in a presidential debate when he said that people that keep making babies like rabbits and kill them because they are inconvenient are scum. My Catholic faith mandates a respect for life, however I do not impose my religion on others. The ReCons have no problem with the Taliban method of imposing their religion by force.
I have spoken about immigration previously. The message is that if you are peaceful and productive, welcome. The ReCons say if you are not one of us, the door is closed and locked.
But homosexuality is perhaps the clearest discriminator between ReCons and Libertarians. In the Texas state house representative Jessica Farrar (Democrat) has introduced HB 604 that would remove from educational materials statements "that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under Section 21.06, Penal Code". You can expect ReCons to attack this proposal with all they have. Libertarians recognize that government should have no role in deciding which lifestyles are acceptable. So if you have any problem trying to tell the difference between a Libertarian and a ReCon, ask them where they stand on HB 604.
The real agenda of the ReCons is homosexuality. They want to use force to wipe out gay marriage. If they achieve this, they will feel they have achieved their goal.
There are some unfortunate reasons why the issue of gay marriage matters. Our tax code and welfare programs are based upon a person’s marital status. Therefore, government is making decisions about what should be considered a legal marriage. It shouldn’t have to. Before the income tax and welfare state, our founding fathers did not have marriage licenses. George Washington never had to get approval from any government bureaucrat to marry Martha.
I have warned previously that social conservatives now control us. I am not a conservative. I am a Libertarian. Let ReCons flee the Libertarian Party. For those who are peaceful and want liberty, whether gay or straight, welcome.
Pat Dixon is the Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Texas and is a writer for Austin Post.
