California Republican Party May Drop Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage
State GOP delegates will vote to remove two key social issues -- same-sex marriage and abortion -- from its platform following losses in the state.
The California Republican Party is currently at odds with the national Republican Party after proposing to remove opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion – two longstanding mainstays of the national platform – from its state party platform.
Supporters of the proposed change say that removing those two prominent social issues from the state’s political platform would put the state GOP’s official position more in line with the values held by most California voters. Opponents argue that by removing those topics, the state party’s stances would contradict those held by most of the party’s presidential candidates and betray values or beliefs that are deeply held by the party’s conservative base.
The 2016 Republican national party platform, which still stands today as the party’s guiding document, opposes same-sex nuptials despite bans prohibiting such marriages having been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. In addition to opposing gay marriage and abortion, the GOP platform also advocates for the restrictions on LGBTQ visibility and transgender rights, supporting the now-defunct Trump administration ban on military personnel, and the right of business owners to refuse or deny services to customers based on sincerely held religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage, homosexuality, or the concept of gender identity.
But after years of lacking electoral victories for statewide positions, the California GOP appears to be moving away from the national party’s more unpopular, socially conservative stances, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In July, a California Republican Party committee adopted a proposed platform plank that would remove language defining marriage as a “union between one man and one woman” but keep in place expressions of support for “traditional family values” and a “strong and healthy family unit.”
The state party also removed its opposition against a federal abortion ban and advocated for “adoption as an alternative to abortion” to better align with majority opinion. According to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, 79% of Californians and 59% of California Republicans did not want the Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark abortion-rights case Roe v. Wade overturned.
The California GOP will vote on whether to remove opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion topics from the state platform at the California Republican convention in Anaheim in September.
However, since California is the state with the largest number of presidential delegates – which are needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination for 2024 – the party’s top contenders, including former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, as well as others, are expected to attend.
As such, it remains unclear whether delegates will be able to reach a consensus or whether the presence of presidential candidates will lead some who would otherwise have voted to remove the policy planks to vote to retain them. If a consensus can not be reached, the platform debate may be delayed until the party’s spring convention, according to the Times.
Charles Moran, the president of the conservative gay group Log Cabin Republicans, has argued that by removing these statements, the GOP will “give our California Republican candidates a fighting chance.”
“We need a party platform that empowers our candidates, not one that serves as an albatross around their neck,” Moran told the Times.
Jon Fleischman, a former state GOP executive director, disagrees entirely with the move, calling it “extremely controversial,” and “a big middle finger” to Republican presidential candidates that oppose abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ civil rights.
“This… will take a convention that is supposed to be about unifying the party and instead it ends up becoming a big feud,” Fleischman said. “It’s the last thing the party needs.”
Dan Schnur, a politics professor at University of Southern California, Pepperdine University, and the University of California at Berkeley, says that the desired outcome depends on how party officials view the purpose of the platform.
“If it’s to reflect the ideological passions of their most loyal members, then they shouldn’t make these changes,” he said. “But if it’s to win more elections, then it’s probably something they need to think about.”
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