How the Log Cabin Republicans turned on Muslims after Orlando

The day after the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, more than 50 LGBTQ organizations and civil rights groups came together to show solidarity with the Muslim community and denounce any anti-Muslim bigotry that might be committed in their name.

The statement read in part:

Our response to this horrific act, committed by one individual, will have a deep impact on Muslim communities in this country and around the world. We as an intersectional movement cannot allow anti-Muslim sentiment to be the focal point as it distracts from the larger issue, which is the epidemic of violence that LGBTQ people, including those in the Muslim community, are facing in this country.

One group that didn’t sign was the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest organization of gay conservatives. They released their own statement that same day with a much different tone. “In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12, a shooter with suspected ties to radical Islam raided and killed 49 people inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,” the short statement began. It went on to quote the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, Gregory T. Angelo:

Domestic terrorism has struck once again on American soil, in a direct attack on the LGBT community of the United States — during Pride Month, no less. It’s no secret that abroad men who are gay — and merely suspected of being gay — are targeted for execution; today, that threat has reached the United States. Log Cabin Republicans extends our deepest sympathy, condolences, and sorrow to the victims and families of those targeted in this morning’s violence. If the shooter’s suspected motivations are indeed confirmed, we call upon President Obama and the presumptive nominees of both parties to condemn the attacker and acknowledge in no uncertain terms the cause of this massacre: Radical Islamic terrorism.

Republicans have made a cause of badgering President Obama to use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe terror attacks, even though many in the Muslim community feel it unfairly associates Islam with terrorism, and plays into the hands of groups like ISIS that want to depict Western society as being at war with Islam.

The president has refrained from using the phrase, opting instead to call out “violent extremism.” Recently Donald Trump called on Obama to resign over his refusal to use the phrase.

The clear demagoguery by Angelo and the Log Cabin Republicans stands in stark contrast to the calls for solidarity expressed by many LGBTQ groups in the wake of these attacks.

“As LGBTQ people who lived through the AIDS crisis, we know what it looks like and feels like to be scapegoated and isolated in the midst of a crisis that actually requires solidarity, empathy and collaboration from all quarters,” wrote the coalition of LGBTQ organizations, which includes prominent advocacy groups like GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign.

“We appeal to all in our movement and all who support us to band together in rejecting hatred and violence in all its shape shifting forms,” their letter continued. “Let us stand united as a diverse LGBTQ community of many faiths, races, ethnicities, nationalities and backgrounds.”