The Log Cabin Republicans are denouncing the party’s staunchly socially conservative 2016 platform, calling it “the most anti-LGBT platform” in the GOP’s 162-year history.
“I’m mad as hell,” the group’s president, Gregory T. Angelo, wrote in an email to supporters this week.
“Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history,” he wrote Tuesday. “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!” the email continued. “BUT … now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves.”
The email then asked for a donation so supporters can “take back” the platform and the party.
The platform, described by The New York Times as a “rightward lurch” from the party’s hard-line platform in 2012, will be officially adopted at the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland, The Boston Globe reported.
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Mr. Trump will be expected to run his campaign based on the platform once he’s officially named the party’s nominee.
The Log Cabin Republicans previously praised Mr. Trump for his response to the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack in Orlando, calling his outreach to the LGBT community “historic.”
“Donald Trump here is showing leadership on LGBT issues, and we haven’t seen that from Republican presidential nominees in decades. Certainly, we’ve never seen a nominee so directly engage with and seek the support from LGBT voters,” Mr. Angelo told CNN at the time. “There’s certainly reasons to be skeptical about Trump and LGBT issues, but given his statements … and his actions, there is every indication to believe that Mr. Trump would do no harm on LGBT equality and might actually advance LGBT equality under his presidency.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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