Same-Gender Marriage Ban called by GOP Platform
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has voted to re-use the party’s anti-LGBTQ political platform from 2016 because the coronavirus epidemic prevents the RNC from assembling the thousands of national delegates required to draft a new one.
According to LGBTQ Nation, The Republican platform has decided to continue to oppose same-gender marriage and the expansion of civil rights for sexual orientation and gender identity while supporting President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban, conversion therapy, and businesses discriminating against same-sex couples.
Queer couples have had the right to marry for five years, a right that they didn’t think they would lose during these unprecedented times.
The current platform also contains criticisms of the “current administration” and “the president” that once referred to then-President Barack Obama but now refers to Trump.
The decision to simply re-use the 2016 platform has reportedly upset Republicans like White House Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning Jared Kushner, who sought to simplify the platform and remove its support for conversion therapy in order to attract younger, socially progressive voters.
Tony Perkins—President of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council who was elected to the GOP platform committee in 2016 and bragged about writing most of the 2016 platform—reached out to the Trump administration to inquire about updating the platform.
Perkins, like other conservatives, may have reached out in hopes of strengthening platform positions that help Trump’s declining favor among Christians.
Christian conservatives may continue rallying behind Trump no matter the platform because of his ardent support of so-called religious freedoms and banning abortion as well as his policies against immigrant asylum-seekers. Other party leaders believe voters don’t really care what the national platform says at all.
Others are surely ready to use the GOP’s own, stale platform against liberals, as they characterize the GOP as out of touch with the social changes that have broken out across the country over the last four years.
Terry Schilling, executive director of conservative think tank the American Principles Project, also criticized the decision and told the outlet that not updating the platform will make the party “stale.”
Mr. Schilling said, “America has changed incredibly since 2016, and not updating our platform to reflect that is an unforced error. The RNC should reconsider this terrible decision.”
