Ballot Boxing: Will gay marriage appear in GOP platform?

Welcome to Ballot Boxing, WORLD’s political roundup of news and views from the presidential campaign trail.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s victory over Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in Wisconsin’s Republican primary Tuesday brought the GOP one step closer to the prospect of a contested convention in Cleveland this summer. But beyond discussions of a nomination showdown, another battle is brewing: The contest for the party’s platform.

This year, a major question looms: Will the GOP embrace gay marriage?

At least one group hopes so. Members of a well-funded organization called the American Unity Fund (AUF) are lobbying members of the Republican platform committee to affirm same-sex marriage along with traditional marriage when they meet in Cleveland in July.

This isn’t a new effort. The group—funded largely by a handful of wealthy Republicans—began its push in 2012 and has helped successfully steer Republican state lawmakers in New York and Rhode Island to propel gay marriage.

One of the group’s founders—billionaire investor Paul Singer—backed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in his now-defunct presidential bid, and he contributed to Cruz’s brief bid for attorney general of Texas. (Singer also gave $100,000 to Club for Growth, a group that contributed heavily to Cruz’s 2012 U.S. Senate race.)

But when it comes to pushing for gay marriage, AUF likely will spend less time with high-profile political leaders and more time with the low-profile party members tasked with grinding out policy statements for the party’s platform.

Here’s how it works: After primaries, most states meet to elect delegates to the national convention. Among those elected, two delegates from each state become members of the national platform committee. (States have different processes for tapping committee members, but sometimes delegates choose among themselves.)

AUF is lobbying those platform committee members to consider backing gay marriage this summer.

It won’t be an easy sell.

The platform committee already includes at least one prominent social conservative: Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is a member of the Louisiana delegation and one of the state’s platform committee members. Perkins and other social conservatives likely would offer stiff opposition to efforts to redefine traditional marriage.

On AUF’s Facebook page, the group contends the current platform uses “mean-spirited language” on the issue of marriage. Among several statements about families, the 2012 GOP platform includes this one:

“We recognize and honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the many burdens of parenting alone, even as we believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through laws governing marriage. We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity.”

The AUF page also says the current platform position “violates the Golden Rule” by not respecting all views on marriage.

That’s a flawed argument—particularly considering the rest of the platform takes specific and staunch policy positions on a range of other issues from budgets to foreign policy.

Indeed, staking out a particular position doesn’t automatically imply disrespecting other positions. And the Golden Rule doesn’t require a person to violate his conscience on a moral question in order to accommodate others. The scriptural principal is to advocate for the truth in a respectful way.

That kind of discourse has been in short supply this political season, but it’s something for delegates—and voters—to cultivate on an unpredictable path that’s sure to grow even thornier in the months to come.