GOP forced to confront divide on LGBT issues in Cleveland

[IronLionZion]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/13/politics/gop-platform-lgbt-social-conservatives-rift/

Cleveland (CNN)Republicans working this week efforts to hammer out a platform representing the heart of the GOP kept coming back to one topic: LGBT issues.

Through hours of debate on topics ranging from federal lands to immigration to the economy to family values, a handful of delegates gathered for Platform Committee meetings ahead of next week's Republican National Convention repeatedly challenged their peers to moderate provisions affecting gay and lesbian Americans.

They were for the most part rebuffed by the 112-member panel, which approved a GOP platform that opposes same-sex marriage rights, supports efforts to restrict bathrooms to individuals' birth gender and protects businesses who refuse services to individuals based on religious objections to gay marriage.

The two days of nationally broadcast, uncomfortable votes exposed a deep divide in the Republican Party over its staunch social conservatism, culminating in a dramatic effort to force the issue on the convention floor and counter cries of deceit.
At the heart of the effort was a group of delegates working with American Unity Fund, a pro-LGBT Republican advocacy group funded by billionaire Republican Paul Singer.

After failing repeatedly in their efforts, the group was buoyed by the number of delegates who voted in their favor, including about 20 delegates raising their hands in support of a proposal from D.C. delegate Rachel Hoff to revamp the party's position on marriage to broaden the language to include "diverse" views on marriage and support the "strength of all families" While raising the amendment, Hoff also emotionally made public to her peers that she was gay.

Video at link

I hope they tear their party apart into several competing factions. Each one standing strong for their principles and refusing to compromise. Haters gonna hate.

[DetlefK]

1. Cannot possibly be true. Trump said that he's the best friend of the LGBT-community.

[IronLionZion]

2. Trump welcomed transgender people to use the restroom at Trump towers

and is likely to lose votes from haters because of that

[DetlefK]

3. I blame the two-party-system of the US:

If other parties outside of R and D were viable, the political climate wouldn't be so partisan and way more diverse.

Imagine, instead of having a republican party, you would have a Big Money-conservative party, a libertarian party, a christian-conservative party and the Tea Party.
Instead of having the democratic party, you would have a Big Money-democratic party and a social-democratic party.


The Republicans are only ripping themselves apart because the US party-system doesn't offer alternatives.
In a multi-party-system, Bernie Sanders wouldn't have needed to concede. He would have moved on to the general election, he would have lost, and then the establishment-democrats and the social-democrats would have negotiated for some alliance. "We will help you pass these laws, if you help us pass those laws."
In a multi-party-system, it wouldn't be necessary for the GOP to be stuck with a candidate they don't want. There would be other conservative parties they can vote for.

Elections wouldn't be a hard choice. Voters could pick from 6 parties or so and pick the one that fits them best.