When I was 18 and registered to vote for the first time, I actually took it as a milestone into adulthood. Admittedly, I knew very little about the political process, but I had the sense of being a part of the machinery that made the nation run, and I wasn’t about to just let it pass me by.

I was as opinionated then as I am now.

I like to think I’ve reached some level of maturity, by now. I know more, and can better verbalize the “whys” and “what fors” behind my opinions. Age has given me the added dimension of firmly held values, some I’ve always had and some that grew with time, taking root and flourishing in the middle of the culture wars that the passing decades have forced conservative thinkers to endure.

In my mind and heart, the Republican party was the vehicle for conservatism. This was the God, country, and family party. We stood up for the traditional family unit, which is the pillar of every strong society. We stood for life and religious freedoms, even if we found ourselves fighting upstream much of the time. We stood for greater control in the hands of the state, smaller federal intervention into the lives of the citizens, and the God-given freedom that deemed every man, woman, and child as valued in the eyes of our Creator.

Enter the “Log Cabin Republicans.”

The Log Cabin Republicans are an organization of LGBT “conservatives.”

Yeah. I know. If you feel like something snapped in the back of your brain while reading that, know it wasn’t a typo. That’s how they bill themselves, and their goal is “inclusion,” as in, excluding the socially conservative, Christian element from the GOP and forcing the LGBT agenda.

A recent press release from Gregory T. Angelo, president of LCR reads:

Date: July 12, 2016

Dear Friend,

There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.

Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.

Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.

This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s! When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.

BUT…now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Log Cabin Republicans has been officially credentialed for the Republican National Convention, and when it convenes in Cleveland in a mere 6 days’ time I want to be able to take a stand, but we’re going to need your support to do it.

For the record, LCR refer to Trump as “the most gay-friendly” GOP nominee ever.

Bringing up the Orlando shooting as a tool to raise money to fight against social conservatives is quite the liberal tactic.

Other things in the language used by Mr. Angelo should be equally disturbing. For instance, the “nonsense about bathrooms” is likely in reference to policies like the HB2 bathroom bill passed in North Carolina earlier this year.  While liberals (and apparently, Log Cabin Republicans) are saying little girls should get used to being exposed to penises in their bathrooms (in the interest of tolerance, of course), actual conservatives know this is an utter rejection of decorum and commonsense. It has nothing to do with the LGBT community and everything to do with keeping women and children safe from predators who would take advantage of gender neutral bathroom policies.

Also, “pray the gay away” is a derogatory way of describing the beliefs of Christians, who believe that homosexuality may be just one more human frailty that may not be “prayed away,” but can be overcome and dealt with through faith, godly love, and adherence to biblical principles.

For the record, however, there’s nothing about conversion therapy in the platform, so this was just a nasty swipe at Christians.

What’s most disgusting about the agenda of LCR is that young people are falling for it. The veil of conservatism that these liberals have wrapped themselves up in is so sheer that nobody should be buying the shtick. But they are.

Angelo ended his release with this:

Take back the Platform. Take back the Party. Stand up today and let the folks on the Platform Committee who paved the way to this foolishness know you’re not going down without a fight!

Take back what was never yours? That’s the problem. While I’m all for inclusion, it’s not at the expense of the soul of the party. They’re seeking to fundamentally change the party from the inside, to the point that there is no visible difference between the GOP and the Democrats.

As a party, Republicans are hanging by a thread. Abandoning the bedrock social issues at this juncture will not help us, as a party or a nation. That the LCR are seeing blood in the water because of Trump should worry people.