At another point, she pleaded with the committee to add an amendment decrying terrorist targeting of gay people, saying, “Can you not at the very least stand up for the right for us not to be killed?”
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An amendment introduced in the GOP Platform Committee that would have recognized “LGBT individuals, Christians, Jews, and women in particular” as victims of radical Islamic terrorism struggled to garner enough votes after several delegates complained it was unnecessarily specific.
“All I ask today is that you include me”, said Rachel Huff, a Republican delegate from Washington, D.C., who is openly gay.
In addition to slamming current trade deals as job-killers, the proposed GOP platform attacks the Obama administration’s counter-terrorism efforts and supports construction of a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border – all familiar arguments from Trump on the campaign trail.
Republicans crafting a party platform in Cleveland on Monday battled over religious liberty, gay marriage and LGBT rights, highlighting divisions in the party over social issues.
Mr. Bopp said that could be one way to ease concerns tied to Mr. Trump’s evolution on abortion and his vow to “absolutely” change the abortion plank in the platform to include exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairing an opening session of the platform committee at a lakeside convention center in Cleveland, which hosts next week’s Republican convention. Hoff implored the committee to simply acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion among Republicans on marriage for same-sex couples. I think that there are a handful of things, as one conservative activist told me yesterday, Donald Trump can do to really mollify the conservatives who are still suspicious of his conservative credentials. If they wanted to have any influence over the Republican Party then they should hold candidates’ feet to the fire. The 1976 Republican Party platform supports “giving the District of Columbia voting representation in the United States Senate and House of Representatives and full home rule over those matters that are purely local”.
The 16-member subcommittee, made up of 13 women and three men, rejected Dickerson’s request to remove language in the platform that “salutes” states like North Carolina for passing controversial transgender bathroom laws that critics say are bigoted. Eventually, the platform committee voted to use a general phrase, condemning the terror group for attacks on “all human beings”.
“It seems to be for young people, they do not have the discernment and so they become addicted before they have the maturity to understand the consequences”, she said. “We need to do something here”.
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“I’ve encouraged him to embrace the platform, and I believe that he will”, said Wyoming Sen.
