“Freedom means freedom for everyone, including gays and lesbians… and all I ask today is you include me and those like me”.
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But it leaves the issue up to state governments, saying it rejects the Supreme Court’s decision past year holding that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional: “We urge (the decision’s) reversal whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states”.
Republicans who gathered to shape their party platform in Cleveland this week also refused to reverse their opposition to bathroom choice for transgender people, exposing a rift with their presumptive presidential nominee despite internal warnings that social conservative policies on gay rights alienate voters.
Support for same-sex marriage cuts across many demographic groups, but more than half of Republicans and conservatives still say same-sex marriage should not be legal.
While embracing some of Trump’s proposals, the proposed GOP platform continues the party’s previous stance against same-sex marriage, and other socially conservative issues.
Conversion therapy is based on the debunked theory that you can “pray away the gay”. These staffers had already included language in the first draft calling for “construction of a physical barrier” on what it called “our vulnerable borders”.
The party will formally vote next week to ratify the platform.
A committee met Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio for a line-by-line honing of the party’s official positions in a document that will theoretically serve as a guide over the next four years.
“We are your daughters”, Hoff said, brought to tears during an emotional speech.
“We are your daughters, your sons, your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues, the couple that sits next to you in church”, Hoff told the committee.
Gone is seeking a constitutional amendment to declare marriage as between “one man and one woman”, and instead there is a section on the importance of a “married mom and dad”.
Several members of the panel had an established history of anti-LGBT attitudes.
It’s a longshot, but Fogarty says that the movement, being led by a Colorado delegate, has the 25 percent of rules committee members needed to launch a floor fight – but Fogarty would not be one of the defectors. Trump has insisted Mexico will pick up the cost; Mexico’s president reiterated this week it will not. “We need to do something here”. Tennessee delegate Connie Hunter voiced disagreement with the Department of Education’s guidance but said it would be “overkill” to include such opposition in the platform. At a rally last month in Dallas, he said, the “LGBT community is starting to like Donald Trump very, very much lately”.
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“That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life”, a GOP observer in the audience said reacting to the claims.
