The Cody Statement

I thought I would share a statement made six years ago, but gay and straight Republicans. For some reason, the document has been ignored, and should be shared.

Here is the Cody Statement:

We are Republican because we believe in limited government, free markets, a strong national defense, and personal responsibility;

We strive for Unity without the tyranny of uniformity, because the greatness of the Republican Party, like the greatness of America, is found in our tolerance for diversity;

We are full members of the Coalition that elected President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney; and Republicans everywhere, and we accept our corresponding rights and duties as such.

Some of us are straight, some of us are gay or lesbian, and some of us think it is nobody's business but our own what we are. All of us are American -- unique, multi-dimensional, defying any one label but united by three common commitments:

We are committed to Freedom; we believe everyone should be included in America's proud progression toward full civil equality for all, without regard to sexual orientation. Neither victim nor villain, we seek no special privilege, but we deplore being penalized. Many of us simply want to be left alone -- a creed of many Wyoming persons. We believe a government powerful enough to “give” all citizens what they think they might want will inevitably be powerful enough to take it all away.

We are committed to Family and recognize families form the core of civilized society, whichever of the many loving forms families may take in 21st Century America; we are joined in our commitment to be true to our ancestors, who fought and died, strove and sacrificed so that we could enjoy the blessing of Liberty today. We are committed to love and protect each other in the present, and we trust that the work we do will make our communities and our country a better place for future generations. We believe well-intentioned people always can find ways to live together in harmony, if we are just to try.

And while government can help ensure a good society, it cannot make a great society---only free people, acting in their myriad creative and generous ways, can accomplish that task.

We are committed to a respect for the Faith of the Founders; most of us, although not all of us, worship God or a Higher Being. But no matter what our private beliefs, we are all publicly devoted to an America in which everyone is free to pursue life, liberty and happiness. At the same time, we recognize the value and importance of moral and ethical standards. Cognizant of the violence which tears at our country, we band together in common defense against every kind of violence and hatred.

These are our commitments. We will certainly not agree on every issue, and we may vigorously disagree on some issues. But we are here because we believe sexual orientation should be a non-issue within the Republican Party. And so, inspired by our common commitments, we make these pledges.

We pledge to help the Republican Party become a truly “big tent,” welcoming all who share its values under its benign unfolding.

We pledge to help all Americans -- all Americans -- understand the great philosophical principles of the Republican Party and to encourage support for candidates wedded to the true spirit of those principles.

We pledge, in short, to be “Cody Republicans”: a Republican who is very traditional in holding the ideals of rugged independence, integrity, fairness and being respectful of your friends and neighbors; and persistent in our commitment for those ideals to apply equally to all.

We, the members of the Republican Unity Coalition, put our hand to this credo, The Cody Statement, in Cody, Wyoming, August 6, 2001.