Louis Capozzi | Gay Old Party

Citizen Capozzi | How the Republican Party quietly shifted on LGBT rights

By Louis Capozzi 07/06/16 9:06pm

Is the Republican Party becoming an ally?

This idea would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, when opposition to gay marriage was enshrined in the Party’s 2012 campaign platform. Mitt Romney argued that gay marriage was incompatible with a “strong society” and opposed equal benefits for gay civil unions.

In 2014, the media chuckled at the pair of gay Republicans who ran for Congress and lost. Meanwhile, President Obama and Hillary Clinton enthusiastically identified themselves with the LGBTQ movement even though they had only recently reversed their opposition to same-sex marriage.

Then in 2015 the Supreme Court unambiguously declared gay marriage a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. Many Republican leaders quietly celebrated the ruling, happy to move on from an issue where their stance is increasingly unpopular.

But many Republicans were not willing to move on. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered state officials to ignore the higher court’s ruling. Senator Ted Cruz called for a reversal of the Supreme Court’s decision, describing it as the “very definition of tyranny.”

Anti-LGBTQ Republicans garnered momentum in 2015 when Kim Davis, a Kentucky government clerk, refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. The socially conservative Mike Huckabee saw his chance to rise and attempted to make Davis into a major issue that would shape the 2016 Republican Primary.

Several other GOP candidates, including Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Bobby Jindal sided with Davis. Yet one favorite of the far right shrugged his shoulders.

Donald Trump said Davis should resign her government position because gay marriage is “the law of the land.” Shortly thereafter, at the first Republican debate, John Kasich made headlines when he said he would love and accept a hypothetical gay daughter.

But social conservatives weren’t yet ready to surrender. When North Carolina passed its bathroom law targeting transgender people, Ted Cruz pounced and again placed LGBTQ issues front and center just before the Indiana Primary.

Again, Trump shrugged.

After suggesting that North Carolina’s law was a mistake, he invited Caitlyn Jenner, a prominent conservative transgender activist, to use whatever bathroom she wanted at Trump Tower.

Indiana Republican voters didn’t seem to care when they chose Trump over Cruz. Perhaps they were tired of the battle after their state was battered for its anti-LGBTQ laws in 2015.

After Trump locked up the nomination, he went on the offensive to earn LGBTQ votes. In the aftermath of the Orlando terrorist attack, he attempted to reframe his proposed Muslim ban as an LGBTQ rights issue. On Twitter, he promised “to fight for [LGBTQ voters] while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedom and beliefs.”

Call his remarks awkward, forced, or absurd. But one thing cannot be denied: the GOP president nominee is appealing directly to LGBTQ voters and recognizing their rights.

The leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans have hailed Trump’s nomination as a sign of significant progress for the GOP on LGBTQ rights. They are even making the argument that Trump might challenge Clinton’s dominance with LGBTQ voters.

In the not-too-distant past, , these developments would have seemed highly unlikely, if not impossible.

While Republicans regularly campaigned against gay marriage just a few years ago, most of the Party’s high-profile candidates simply avoid the issue now. In Pennsylvania, Senator Pat Toomey has remained relatively quiet on LGBTQ rights, though he supported repealing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte has urged Republicans to avoid discussing the issue.

Some Republicans are going even further than Toomey and Ayotte. In Ohio, Senator Rob Portman had already endorsed gay marriage in 2013 after his son came out as gay. Yet most surprising of all, Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois not only supports gay rights, but he was even endorsed by the left-leaning Human Rights Campaign, a prominent LGBTQ advocacy group.

On most issues, these moderate Republicans generally dissent from their presumptive nominee’s positions. Yet on LGBTQ rights, they might have some common ground.

How politically important is this shift? Though polling suggests that only around 5 percent of voters self-identify as LGBTQ, there is extensive debate over what percentage of Americans are still in the closet. And in 2012, President Obama received 76 percent of the self-identified gay vote. Considering that Romney still won a quarter of this vote even as he directly opposed LGBTQ rights, it’s possible that Trump or other more mainstream Republicans could significantly improve on Romney’s performance in the near future.

In other words, gay voters just might send a Republican straight to the White House.

LOUIS CAPOZZI is a rising first-year law student from Mechanicsburg, PA. His email address is capozzil@sas.upenn.edu. “Citizen Capozzi” appears every other Thursday.

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