Delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention subcommittee unanimously approved an amendment to their draft platform that called pornography a “public menace”, according to CNN.
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The Republican Party, as it prepares for its convention next week has checked off item No. 1 on its housekeeping list – drafting a party platform. “This platform represents the input of grassroots Republicans from across the country who reaffirmed our Party’s belief in limited constitutional government, family values, and a strong national defense”. So don’t look for any concessions to changing views among the broader public on key social issues.
The move arrives after four years of federal law broadening protections for LGBT Americans, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2015 that ruled same-sex marriage legal throughout the nation. But in two days of deliberations this week, platform committee members rejected all attempts to sound a more moderate tone on the matter.
A minority report requires the support of a quarter of the delegates on the platform committee, about 28 signatures in total.
Rachel Hoff, a delegate from the District of Columbia, said her quest to get some reference to LGBT was becoming “a test of how far this committee is willing to go to avoid a single position referencing the LGBT community”.
Some pro-life leaders are now urging the Republican Party to include defunding Planned Parenthood in the platform, says Created Equal spokesman Mark Harrington. She was also unhappy that the platform refers to the recent terrorist shooting attack in Orlando, Florida, but says nothing about the target being a gay nightclub.
Unfortunately for LGBT allies in the GOP, the Republican Platform Committee didn’t feel the same way. “But I also think it threatens the party on a political level, where on a demographic basis, what future will our party have if we are so out of touch with young Americans in particular?”
Still, delegate Leslie Rutledge, who is Arkansas’ attorney general, says gays and lesbians are welcome in the party. During those sessions, the proposed amendments were displayed on television screens, and they were discussed by delegates who had the benefit of knowing their context in platform language. Again and again, libertarian forces in the party raised objections to the parts of the platform that drove Republicans ever deeper into social extremism. “Tremendous people.” In April, Trump said that North Carolina should not have passed their bathroom law and that transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner could use the restroom of her choice at Trump Tower.
“So not only is the Platform Committee recognizing the position Donald Trump has held throughout the primary process, it has been endorsed by the American people, who have overwhelmingly supported his positions and overwhelmingly made him the presumptive nominee”.
Among other provisions, the committee voted down an amendment to give the residents of USA territories – such as Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico – the right to vote for president.
And it would impose “special scrutiny” on foreign visitors from “terror-sponsoring” countries – an echo of Trump’s campaign call to bar Muslims from entering the United States.
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That work began on Monday with 112 delegates, a man and a woman elected by the GOP delegation from each state or territory, that form the Platform Committee.
