Republican Party Chair Reince Priebus told the AP in an interview on Friday that Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel, who is openly gay, is “welcome” in the Republican Party though the platform is staunchly anti-gay:
“We're still a party that believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, but it doesn't mean that we're going to kick people out,” he said, describing opposition to gay marriage as “one of the bedrock issues of our party.”
“I can't win this race if I tell people that they're not welcome in our party,” Priebus said when asked about Thiel. “He's been a good help to our party and many candidates across the country. He's a good Republican. He's welcome in our party. Period.”
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Thiel, who made headlines recently by admitting to secretly bankrolling a lawsuit against Gawker Media by Hulk Hogan which has forced the media outlet into bankruptcy. The revenge suit was prompted by a 2007 story Gawker published discussing the fact that Thiel is gay.
Sam Stein notes that there have been two other openly gay speakers at Republican conventions:
Steve Fong, a little-known official with the pro-gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans, gave a one-minute speech, to little fanfare, in 1996.
Four years later, the party gathered in Philadelphia to formally nominate the George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ticket. Months prior, a group of gay and lesbian Republicans had petitioned Bush to give Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) a speaking spot. Kolbe had supported his home-state senator, John McCain, in the primary. But Bush was aware of the message it would send to have an openly gay conservative speak. Advocates said he was intrigued by the idea.
An invitation was extended: Kolbe would get a slot on one of the convention's earlier evenings and not during prime time. He would also talk about trade, not LGBT rights. Still, social conservatives were upset and rumors began to surface that they would stage some form of protest.
The topic of Thiel's speech is unknown at this point.
Priebus also discussed gay conversion therapy and claims that it is not in the platform:
Priebus denied that language inserted into a draft of the party platform encourages “conversion therapy,” which religious conservatives believe can stop gay people from being gay. The new language, which has yet to be adopted by the full convention, reads, “We support the right of parents to determine the proper treatment or therapy, for their minor children.”
Asked whether the Republican Party supports “conversion therapy,” Priebus charged, “It's not in the platform.”
RELATED: 2016 GOP Platform Lays It Bare: Today's Republican Party is an Anti-LGBT Hate Group
Snopes takes a look at recent reports that conversion therapy has made it into the platform, though the platform “faces at least two more tests before officially becoming part the party's platform, and thus far its myriad issues remained unapprove.”
The rumors seem to come from reports in CNN and TIME about Tony Perkins' success in getting language adopted to the platform that cannot be interpreted any other way:
Most reports about the conversion therapy aspect of the 2016 GOP platform trace back to CNN's account, which is based on a copy of a draft obtained by the news network. The cited language (if accurate) is ambiguous and does not expressly identify conversion by name, but many onlookers nonetheless believe there is no other reasonable interpretation of Perkins' proposal.
At least two of Donald Trump's delegates run a political organization that believes gays can be cured, the San Diego Union Tribune reports:
The views of husband and wife team John and Donna Woodrum espoused through their Eagle Forum come to light just before the Republican National Convention opens in Cleveland.
They aren't the first Trump supporters with controversial views. In May, another potential Trump delegate was discovered to be a white nationalist who leads the American Freedom Party, a group that says it “represents the interests and issues of European-Americans.”
