Indiana Republican leader defends ‘traditional families’ line in platform
The Indiana Republican Party is poised to change language in its platform that supports marriage between a man and a woman.
The GOP is set to meet June 8 and 9 at its state convention in Evansville to vote on its 2018 platform.
The platform proposal replaces the words “marriage between a man and woman” with “traditional families with a mother and father.”
In full, the proposal reads:
“We believe in strong families. We believe that strong families are the foundation of society and that such families bring forth citizens capable of self-government, as well as properly-motivated public servants so essential for a successful republic. We support traditional families with a mother and father, blended families, grandparents, guardians, single parents and all loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day.”
Kyle Hupfer, the state’s Republican Party chairman, said someone leaked the 2018 proposal Friday, so the party decided to put it online.
The GOP chairman on Friday also shared an email in which staunch conservatives basically attacked the party over the proposal.
The platform also mentions “all loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day.”
Hupfer said that “all loving adults” line has been there for years. In fact, it can be found in the 2016 platform online.
The chairman said, “It’s clear in there that we support traditional families with a mother and father in the home, which is based on a marriage between a man and woman. So, we are supporting that. There is no removal of that. It is just saying the prior sentence that said that was the only way to have a strong family, people felt excluded by that. We want to make sure that folks who are out there, whether it’s single parents, grandparents because of a tragedy or opioid issue, or aunts, uncles, or even our foster parents, which we have thousands across the state, feel they fit into Republican platform.”