Republican Party Avoids Resolutions on Marriage Equality

With marriage equality now the law nationwide, the Republican Party can't decide what to say about it.

With the field of GOP candidates set for their first debate tonight in Cleveland, the Republican National Committee held its summer meeting there and considered a slate of resolutions.

One resolution proposed the party merely respect differing opinions about marriage equality. Another outright condemned same-sex marriage. In the end, none related to LGBT issues made it to a final vote, reportsTime.

The Washington Blade had obtained two antigay resolutions ahead of their consideration. RNC member Ross Little of Louisiana proposed condemning the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of marriage equality as having "no basis in the Constitution" and called for legislation to undermine it. Specifically, it sought to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over marriage altogether.

Ahead of the meeting, the Human Rights Campaign had highlighted the resolutions as "an opportunity" for the GOP presidential candidates "to publicly embrace or reject several anti-LGBT resolutions that are being considered for inclusion in the GOP platform." JoDee Winterhof, HRC's vice president of policy and political affairs, said the debate could be a place to do it. "At Thursday's debate, we urge Republican candidates to help turn the page on discrimination and stand with the growing majority of voters who support full LGBT equality," he said. "When nearly nine out of ten Americans know someone who is LGBT, it's clear that politicians who won't speak out against anti-LGBT policies risk rejection in 2016."

After the Supreme Court ruling came down in June, RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that the justices had "failed to recognize the states' constitutional role in setting marriage policy, instead finding a federal role where there is none." Priebus said, "As a Party, we believe in the importance of traditional marriage between a man and a woman."

Like some of the candidates, he turned toward issues of "religious liberty," warning that churches shouldn't be forced to perform same-sex marriages -- which has never happened.

"Today's ruling cannot and must not be used to coerce a church or religious institution into performing marriages that their faith does not recognize," he said. "We should respect the sincerely held religious views of our fellow citizens, just as we respect those on the winning side of this case."

Aside from reacting to marriage directly, another resolution obtained by the Blade would have required schools that include LGBT people in sex-ed classes to teach about "the harmful physical aspects of the lifestyle."

Not too surprisingly, it was proposed by notoriously antigay RNC member Dave Agema, who The Advocate named to its list of 2014's worst homophobes. The party had actually tried getting him to resign in 2014 after Agema called Russia's so-called gay propaganda law "common sense" and said gay people "want free medical because they're dying between 30 and 44 years old" of HIV and AIDS.