Equality NC rips up GOP platform on sexual orientation

Equality N.C., the gay-rights group that was active in the failed effort to stop the same-sex marriage ban amendment in May, issued a statement Friday criticizing the state GOP party platform approved in Greensboro last weekend for its exclusion of gay and lesbian people who live here.

While one plank of the platform says the party opposes “all forms of invidious discrimination,” it concludes “Sexual orientation is not an appropriate category.”

The platform goes on to state the “ideal environment” for raising children is with a married mother and father, and opposes adoption by same-sex couples.

It supports other states’ and federal amendments to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples. It opposes sex education in school without parental consent, and supports teaching abstinence until marriage. “Public schools should not be used to teach children about homosexual behavior,” it adds.

Equality N.C. executive director Stuart Campbell said, “We are deeply disappointed and troubled at the glaring anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) tone of the North Carolina GOP platform statement in light of how many Republicans came out against Amendment One.”

The group’s board chairman, Dan Gurley, a former Republican National Committee national field director and state Republican Party executive director added his own remarks.

“North Carolina Republicans deserve better than an agenda that would ceaselessly expand government encroachment in the lives of LGBT North Carolinians.”