Amid the rampant hyperbole in reaction to the Supreme Court’s pending overturn of Roe v. Wade, nothing has been more misleading than the accusation from leftist activists, the media and Democrats — even President Biden himself — that gay rights could be next.

“We’re outraged,” the Human Rights Campaign president declared, “because reproductive rights are LGBTQ+ rights.” A similar statement from GLAAD trumpeted, “None of us are safe from the extreme anti-women and anti-LGBTQ ideology that now dominates this Court.”

As the president of the country’s largest organization representing LGBT Republicans and their allies, I see this false line of attack for what it is: a nakedly partisan talking point designed to gin up fear among the LGBT community and its allies to boost the Democrats’ sagging enthusiasm heading into the midterm elections.

Left-wing groups like the Human Rights Campaign traffic in panic and seize every opportunity they can to fundraise for their massive Democratic get-out-the-vote machines. Fearmongering that LGBT rights are on the chopping block — unless, conveniently, you vote for Democrats in November — is the same play they’ve run for years. 

LGBT Americans deserve better than to be pawns in their game. Let’s look at the facts. 

Most reasonable Americans, whatever their views on abortion, would agree that obtaining one is fundamentally different from entering a marriage. Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the leaked draft opinion, concurs. Citing gay-rights and contraceptive-rights cases, he writes that “abortion is ‘inherently different from marital intimacy,’ ‘marriage,’ or ‘procreation.’ And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

In other words, the court is going out of its way to make it clear that its reasoning in this case does not apply to gay marriage and other LGBT rights. The left conveniently leaves these critical lines out of its fundraising emails and scare tactics.

While it’s reassuring to know that the justices are all but declaring marriage equality untouchable by this decision in the court of law, it might be even more encouraging that marriage equality is secure in the court of public opinion. A Gallup poll last summer found that a record-high 70% of Americans — including a majority of Republicans — support the right to same-sex marriage.

The numbers have been rising steadily for three decades, the result of years of hard work by activists on both sides of the aisle and increasing inclusion of LGBT Americans in public life. President Donald Trump’s support for gay marriage was a game-changing moment — he was the first president to back gay rights upon taking office. In the eyes of the public, marriage equality is settled.

The same can’t be said for the abortion debate. Despite Roe v. Wade’s status as the law of the land for nearly half a century, there has been no similar surge in support for abortion. A separate Gallup poll last summer found a nearly 50-50 split among pro-life and pro-choice views; in fact, Americans are less likely to say they are pro-choice than they were 30 years ago. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, it’s clear the public’s views on abortion and gay marriage are on very different tracks.

A core part of the Log Cabin Republicans’ mission is to fight for increasing LGBT support and inclusion within GOP ranks. We have scored many wins, and while we’ve also faced some setbacks, our party is increasingly united on issues important to LGBT conservatives that were once taboo even to discuss.

If we see a credible threat to marriage equality and other LGBT rights, we will fight it — but this isn’t it. We’ve seen this kind of fearmongering before, most recently over the Florida parental-rights law, from an increasingly desperate left looking for checks. Until we have real reason to believe otherwise, we will continue to treat it as such.

Charles Moran is the president of the Log Cabin Republicans.