Gay Republicans ‘furious’ with new party platform backing gay cure therapy, opposing equal marriage
The Log Cabin Republican group has expressed ‘fury’ after the national Republican Party drafted its most homophobic policy platform in decades.
The party has this week been finalising its 2016 platform ahead of the GOP conference, where Donald Trump is expected to officially become the Republican Presidential candidate.
But as evangelicals and right-wingers currently dominate the internal party infrastructure, its platform this week has become one of the most regressive ever seen on LGBT rights.
The platform rejects attempts to ban ‘gay cure’ therapy for minors, claiming “parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference”.
On equal marriage, it insists: “Natural marriage between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged.”
It calls for the Supreme Court ruling on equal marriage to be reversed, opposes transgender rights legislation, and calls for ‘religious freedom’ laws to permit anti-LGBT legislation.
In a message to supporters, Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T Angelo savaged the new platform.
He wrote: “There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.
“Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.
“Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.
“This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s!
“When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.”
He added that the group plans to “take a stand” at the Republican Convention in Cleveland, adding that the group is “not going down without a fight”.
