Nothing but More "Disappointment and Disregard" for LGBT Voters in Ryan Pick

For Immediate Release

View Online: http://lgbtde.ms/MLFYpL

August 11, 2012
Contact: Jerame Davis
202-625-1382
jdavis@stonewalldemocrats.org 

Nothing but More "Disappointment and Disregard" for LGBT Voters in Ryan Pick

This morning in front of the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA, Mitt Romney announced his choice of Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate. National Stonewall Democrats, the only national organization representing LGBT Democrats and their allies, is reacting to the pick.

"Mitt Romney's choice of Tea Party darling Paul Ryan as his running mate is as crass as it is cunning," said NSD Executive Director Jerame Davis. "Romney knows the Tea Party base of the GOP still doesn't trust him or believe in his conservative credentials; his choice of Ryan is nothing more than a craven attempt to shore up his base. Though Ryan brings relative youth and excites the base, he has little experience aside from being a Washington politician beholden to corporations and the wealthy."

The Ryan budget proposal that Mitt Romney has all but adopted as his own would be one of the largest transfers of wealth upward in history. It would gut Medicare and Medicaid, reduce services across the board for the poor and underserved, and shift the tax burden onto the middle class while giving huge tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.

"Given the opportunity to enact their budget, the poor and middle class in this country would be devastated in order for Romney and Ryan to line the pockets of their wealthy paymasters," opined Davis. "Conservatives who believe this budget is the prescription for what ails our federal government should be warned: under the Ryan budget plan, you will almost certainly be paying more for less."

Ryan's record on LGBT issues is also abysmal. He voted against hate crimes legislation twice, opposed the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," supports a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and voted to deny gays and lesbians the right to adopt children in Washington, DC.

"Ryan's opposition to civil rights for LGBT people certainly matches Mitt Romney's, but unlike Romney's gutless pandering to the religious right, Ryan is a true believer," said Davis. "For LGBT voters there's nothing in this pick but more disappointment and disregard."

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National Stonewall Democrats is the national voice of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied Democrats, with more than 80 local affiliates across the nation. Stonewall Democrats works to elect more pro-equality Democrats regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity - and to improve the Democratic Party on issues important to LGBT Democrats.