News

A completed draft Texas Republican Party platform refers to homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” gender-affirming care as “child abuse,” and Drag Queen Story Hour as “predatory sexual behavior.” The platform has been voted on by state party delegates and will be formally adopted on Wednesday after a final vote count.

The list of state party priorities calls for an end to legal same-sex marriages, same-sex parenting, all LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination laws, all transgender rights — including gender-affirming care for children and adults — a ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools and libraries, the defunding of all diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and legal protections for anyone who discriminates against queer people based on “religious or moral beliefs.”

Related:

Furthermore, the Texas GOP platform calls for a complete end to all of the following: pornography, federal welfare programs, minimum wage laws, mandatory sick or family leave policies, net neutrality, removal of Confederate monuments, pro-immigrant sanctuary cities, public education of undocumented children, no-fault divorce, non-abstinence sex education, abortion, birthright citizenship, professorial tenure in colleges and universities, cannabis legalization, anti-climate change legislation, contact tracing for the tracking of communicable diseases, federal regulations ensuring safe farm food production, and U.S. participation in the United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

The platform also calls for fertilized human egg cells to be legally recognized as people, the passage of a “state electoral college-style” law that would make it nearly impossible for Democrats to win statewide office, a ballot measure for Texas to secede from the United States, the invalidation of all federal laws not approved of by county sheriffs, and for Christianity to be inserted into public schools and government buildings.

“We believe the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, overturning the Texas law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Texas, has no basis in the Constitution and should be nullified. We support the definition of marriage as a God-ordained, legal, and moral covenant only between one biological man and one biological woman,” says the platform, which was voted on by party delegates last Friday.

“Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” it continues. “No one should be granted special legal status based on their LGBTQ+ identification…. We are opposed to same-sex parenting, intentionally subjecting a child to the loss of their biological father or mother, and other non-traditional definitions of family.”

“We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity,” it adds. “There shall be no attempt to engage in so-called ‘gender affirming’ medical or mental health intervention for persons between the ages of 18 and 26,” including the use of names and pronouns associated with trans people’s genders. The platform would require health insurance companies covering gender-affirming care to also fully fund de-transitional procedures.

The platform says that any professionals who aid a minor’s gender transition in any way should face professional, civil, and criminal penalties, as well as lawsuits from anyone affected by their behavior. Furthermore, it calls for all gender-segregated facilities in prisons, schools, and government buildings to only be accessible to people based on their biological sex assigned at birth.

“We support affirmation of God, including prayer, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments being returned to our schools, courthouses, and other government buildings,” the platform notes. “All persons and legal entities have the right of conscience and shall be protected under Texas law if they conscientiously object to participate in practices that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs.”

The law calls for increased taxpayer funding of homeschooling, private, and charter schools while opposing any government oversight of them. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric to push for these school privatization policies. Critics say these policies look to defund public schools while benefitting students from wealthier families.

The platform also calls for the state to ignore any federal laws or rules that conflict with state laws. This would include new rules on Title IX and Title VII that forbid anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in workplaces and schools. Texas is one of 13 Republican-led states suing the administration of President Joe Biden over these rules. 

It also calls for laws prohibiting the exposure of minors to “social transitioning” (that is, exploration of a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth), “predatory sexual behaviors” like Drag Queen Story Hour, and “the desensitization of children to sexual topics.”

However, federal courts have blocked Texas’s law prohibiting children at drag events as a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech and assembly. Furthermore, a federal court has also blocked a Texas state law requiring booksellers to rate titles based on their sexual and LGBTQ+ content. Laws defunding DEI initiatives have also disrupted LGBTQ+-inclusive training, advocacy centers, and awareness campaigns in schools and businesses, raising other free-speech concerns.

Though Republicans have controlled the state legislature and governorship for two decades, the party has still struggled to pass the key priorities in its platform, The Texas Tribune noted.

Police in Indianapolis have identified a 12th body buried on the estate of now-deceased wealthy Republican businessman Herbert Baumeister, a closeted gay man who is believed to have murdered over 20 men and boys that he met in Indianapolis gay bars during the mid-1980s and ’90s.

DNA and forensic genetic genealogy testing helped police determine that a bone found on Baumeister’s 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm estate in Westfield belonged to Jeffrey Jones. Jones lived in Fillmore, Indiana — a city located 63 miles southwest of Westfield — when he mysteriously disappeared in 1993. A team of law enforcement and forensic investigators identified Jones’ remains using DNA samples and bone fragments, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said.

“Because many of the remains were found burnt and crushed, this investigation is extremely challenging; however, the team of law enforcement and forensic specialists working the case remain committed. A special thanks goes to the very talented and hardworking people at the FBI, Indiana State Police Laboratory, Dr. Krista Latham of the Biology & Anthropology Department at the University of Indianapolis, and DNA experts from Texas based Othram Laboratory.” said Coroner Jellison.

“Because many of the remains were found burnt and crushed, this investigation is extremely challenging,” Jellison wrote in a May 21 Facebook post. Jellison said that four additional DNA profiles have not yet been identified but will be sent to the FBI for genetic genealogy investigation.

The effort to identify the victims has been complicated by the fact that many of the bones recovered from the Baumeister’s estate had been burned or crushed, “probably the two worst things that you can do to remains,” Jellison said.

Baumeister was a married father of three and the founder of the local Sav-A-Lot thrift stores that made him wealthy. His wife of 25 years said that she and Baumeister only had sex six times during their marriage and that she never saw him nude. In 1994, his 13-year-old son found a partly buried human skeleton on the estate, but Baumeister said the cadaver had belonged to his father who was a doctor.

In the early 1990s, when Indiana State Police began investigating the murders of gay men who had last been seen at Indianapolis gay bars, one man identified Baumeister as a person who nearly suffocated him to death during a sexual encounter at Baumeister’s estate. Concerned about Baumeister’s increasingly erratic behavior, Baumeister’s wife allowed police to search the family’s estate while he was out of town.

Police initially found evidence of 11 bodies on the estate’s grounds and issued a warrant for his arrest. In response, Baumeister lethally shot himself in the head at Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.

Police also suspect that Baumeister may have been the “I-70 Strangler,” a serial murderer who dumped his naked or partially clothed victims’ bodies near Interstate 70 during the late 1980s. Though the serial killings remain officially unsolved, in April 1999, police named Baumeister as their prime suspect in the case, noting that bodies stopped appearing on the interstate after Baumeister purchased his estate in 1991. Baumeister’s victims ranged in age from 14 to 45.

Jellison said that he found it “unacceptable” that human remains have been sitting on a shelf for decades without being identified. “These remains represent people. These people are someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s father. They’re not just a box of bones. They’re people and we have to pursue it,” he said.