Presidential Candidates Opinions on Gay Marriage: Rubio Woos Gay Republicans While Staying in Favor of Conservative Christians
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the conservative's young presidential hopefuls, has been attempting to earn the backing of gay Republicans in an effort to broaden his support. However, the presidential candidate has begun distancing himself from his recent gay-friendly comments.
A report by Reuters asserts Sen. Rubio's office has been meeting with members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a LGBT Republican organization. Although Sen. Rubio's office has not commented on the report, the group's executive director, Gregory Angelo, confirmed some of Sen. Rubio's staff members have been holding quarterly meetings with the group "going back some time."
Angelo explained Sen. Rubio was "not as adamantly opposed to all things LGBT as some of his statements suggest." However, the Florida Republican has never met with the group in person.
Nonetheless, he is not the only Republican hopeful who has met with the group. Carly Fiorina, Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Scott Walker have also met with the Log Cabin Republicans in the last couple of years.
The GOP has been making attempts to change its stance on LGBT issues, particularly same-sex marriage, as the younger generations' views shift. The report cites a Reuters/Ipsos poll that found 49 percent of young Republicans favor same-sex marriage while 78 percent of young voters regardless of political affiliation favor marriage equality.
However, Sen. Rubio has started distancing himself from his recent more socially liberal comments. During an interview with Jorge Ramos earlier this month, Sen. Rubio had said he would attend a same-sex wedding. He also told Bob Schieffer he believed being is not a choice.
His beliefs break from the social conservative base of the GOP. But, in a recent interview, Sen. Rubio made his stance on same-sex marriage clear.
"It doesn't exist. There is no federal constitutional right to same sex-marriage. There isn't such a right," he told the Christian Broadcasting Network's The Brody File this weekend, according to The Hill. "You would have to really have a ridiculous and absurd reading of the U.S. Constitution to reach the conclusion that people have a right to marry someone of the same sex."
His rhetoric differed greatly from that of a candidate who is more LGBT friendly. Sen. Rubio continued, explaining marriage equality advocates did not pursue state legislation "because they can't win that debate; they don't want to have a debate in society."
"They want courts to impose it on people, and they are not even satisfied with that. They have now gone further. They want to stigmatize, they want to ostracize anyone who disagrees with them as haters," he said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's impending decision on same-sex marriage.
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