MILWAUKEE \u2014 The Donald Trump-led Republican Party approved a platform at its convention this week that abandons the GOP\u2019s long-standing, explicit opposition to same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
Some Republicans have celebrated the change as overdue, but other party faithful at the Republican National Convention doubt it will steer the GOP in a different direction. Democrats and LGBTQ groups say they are unimpressed by the rhetorical shift.<\/p>\n
Charles T. Moran, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ group, lauded the GOP for removing \u201coutdated and out-of-step language opposing marriage equality, an issue the vast majority of the country and a majority of Republican voters support,\u201d and for making \u201cclear to voters that the Republican Party welcomes all.\u201d<\/p>\n
But among Republicans overall, support for same-sex marriage is on the decline, according to recent polling.<\/p>\n
Although more than two-thirds of Americans in a June Gallup poll said that same-sex marriages should remain legally recognized, \u201cwith the same rights as traditional marriages,\u201d only 46 percent of Republicans agree \u2014 down from 49 percent in 2023 and 55 percent, the all-time high, in 2022 and 2021. The percentage of Republicans describing same-sex relations as \u201cmorally acceptable\u201d has declined from 56 percent to 40 percent over that period.<\/p>\n
States and the federal government cannot ban same-sex marriages so long as Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, remains settled law.<\/p>\n
But in the past several years, Republican-led states have moved aggressively to curb other rights for LGBTQ people, banning or restricting gender transition treatment for minors and dictating which bathrooms trans people can use in public buildings. GOP-run states have debated or advanced bills that would curtail forms of public expression, such as drag performances, and in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) banned cities from displaying rainbow lights on bridges to celebrate Pride Month.<\/p>\n
Multiple delegates at this week\u2019s convention told The Washington Post that they believe the GOP needs to appeal to a broader swath of voters to win in November. But some said they still personally oppose same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
Rob Linebarger, a Washington state delegate, said, \u201cI think we should be promoting traditional family \u2026 in the biblical sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a man and a woman, and they have kids. If that doesn\u2019t work for [certain people] \u2026 do your own thing. But you don\u2019t need to be recognized for it. Just go live your life. Be free,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Linebarger said he didn\u2019t think the changes to the platform were necessarily intended to bring more voters into the fold, despite widespread public support for same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more about energizing the base to get those that are in favor of the traditional family\u201d to vote, he said. \u201c \u2026 But we\u2019re fair to everybody. We accept everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington state delegate Matt Bumala, chair of the Clark County Republican Party, agreed with Linebarger\u2019s sentiments on acceptance, saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s okay to say what your values are and what you believe in, what you stand for. And that\u2019s different than saying we want to legislate and make it illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think declaring what you stand for principle-wise is important, but it doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re going to take someone\u2019s individual freedoms and rights away,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Kris Warner, the GOP candidate for West Virginia\u2019s secretary of state who is serving as a delegate for the state at the convention, said the changes to the platform on same-sex marriage were \u201cabsolutely\u201d an effort to engage with a different part of the electorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that most of [my] delegation would expect a marriage to be between a man and a woman,\u201d Warner said. \u201c \u2026 I don\u2019t know that [the changes to the platform are] about same-sex marriage being legal, but I think we\u2019ve got to broaden the horizon to win the November general election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Warner acknowledged that the party platform \u2014 shrunk from about 60 pages in its 2016 form to a more digestible 16-page document this year \u2014 is not necessarily being read by voters outside the convention arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk out on the street outside here and you\u2019re not going to find many people that are paying attention to the language being used,\u201d said Warner, who has participated in Republican conventions as a delegate since 2004. \u201cI think it\u2019s a guiding instrument more than it\u2019s a messaging instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats and nonpartisan LGBTQ groups are working to counter any suggestions that the new platform\u2019s language signals that the GOP will be inclusive and equitable toward the LGBTQ community. Although Republicans removed explicit opposition to same-sex marriage in the new platform, they doubled down on policies targeting transgender people. In the new document, the party pledges to continue efforts to \u201ckeep men out of women\u2019s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new platform \u201cadvances the scale of [Republicans\u2019] policies and plans that hurt LGBTQ+ Americans,\u201d Sam Paisley, interim communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement. \u201cTrump\u2019s MAGA allies in state legislatures have introduced more than 1,000 anti-LGBTQ+ bills over the last two years, and these attacks are only growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a nonpartisan LGBTQ rights group, said in a statement that the GOP \u201cknows that their resistance to marriage equality is wildly out of touch with the country. But no election-year messaging can change where MAGA is on equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolf cited the GOP\u2019s embrace of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) \u2014 a main stage convention speaker who once referred to LGBTQ people as \u201cfilth\u201d \u2014 and Trump\u2019s decision to pick Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) to be his running mate, given Vance\u2019s track record of \u201canti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policy positions.\u201d That track record, HRC has pointed out, includes comments suggesting Democrats are \u201cgrooming\u201d children and opposition to the Equality Act, which would amend anti-discrimination laws to include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes.<\/p>\n
Wolf also said that Project 2025, a conservative think tank\u2019s blueprint for a second Trump term, \u201cdisparages same-sex marriages.\u201d Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, which was assembled by people with deep ties to him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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