Defining marriage again divides Indiana GOP legislators

Activists who fought lawmakers’ attempts to ban same-sex unions now want to strike wording that describes marriage as “between a man and a woman” from the state GOP's policy statement.

A similar debate is brewing on the national level.

The division pits social conservatives against moderates who see the issue as unnecessarily divisive at a time when Republican unity is already strained.

“The platform is something that’s supposed to be bring everybody together,” said Megan Robertson, a political organizer who wants one-man, one-woman language removed from both the state and national platforms. “The platform needs to be something we can all point to and say, ‘This is why I’m a Republican.'"

Jim Bopp, an influential conservative, said traditional marriage is a key Republican tenet, and the language needs to stay.

“They represent an extreme minority in the party,” he said of its opponents.

Debate is heating up over what, if anything, to say about marriage as the party's summer conventions draw near.

State delegates are scheduled to vote on a platform at a June 10 meeting in Indianapolis, after a series of public hearings that began Wednesday. The national platform goes to delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

Robertson co-managed the bipartisan Freedom Indiana coalition that stopped lawmakers from passing a same-sex marriage ban in 2014. She’s now part of a new group called Enterprise Republicans, founded by former Angie’s List CEO Bill Osterle, who also ran Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ first campaign.

Robertson said Enterprise Republicans and its supporters aren’t asking the state party to include language supporting same-sex marriage. They just want to remove an endorsement of marriage between a man and woman as “the foundation of society."

Robertson said the phrasing is too divisive.

“The job of the party is to win elections,” she said. “We need to bring more people into the party, not alienate them.”

Efforts to change the platform to avoid the marriage issue have precedent. The state GOP struck one-man, one-woman language from its 2012 platform in hopes of keeping its message focused on the economy and jobs.

But the language went back into the 2014 platform, as a nod to social conservatives who were unhappy that lawmakers didn't pass a law banning gay marriage.

Bopp said the effort to remove the language is overblown by the media. He was quoted in a Politico story, published Monday, about Republicans behind the American Unity Fund, a group encouraging delegates to the national GOP convention to adopt language that accommodating same-sex marriage.

“Conservative forces need to understand there is a serious challenge, and they need to take it seriously,” Bopp was quoted as saying.

Pulling marriage language out of the state platform may prove difficult.

State Rep. Eric Koch (R-Bedford), who supported efforts to lock a same-sex marriage ban into the state Constitution, leads the party platform committee that is holding hearings and taking input online.

He was appointed by state GOP Chairman Jeff Cardwell, a close ally of Gov. Mike Pence. The governor, a social conservative and gay-marriage opponent, stood against efforts this year to extend Indiana's civil rights law to cover gay and transgender Hoosiers.

Robertson said the platform process is rigged to discourage opposition – a charge that Koch rejects.

Koch said opinions are being gathered from all members of the party and will be given fair consideration.

Some party leaders who support removing the language say it will be a tough haul. State Republicans are weary of the debate, worn out by a contentious presidential primary season, and would prefer to skip it.

Craig Dunn, Howard County Republican chairman and member of the state committee, predicted that there won't be enough support to remove the marriage language.

“I just don’t think we have the stomach for a fight," he said.