The rubber is about to meet the road on the Republican Party's official stance on the issues of LBGT rights, and conspicuous by his silence on the matter is the party's presumptive nominee.
Whether by design, indifference or self-preservation, Trump has been mum — and is seemingly caught in the middle — at a time when powerful and polarizing forces care a lot about the party's platform next week at the GOP convention in Cleveland.
As
The New York Times reports, it's hard to pin down what Trump's views might be when it comes to the party's platform:
- On the one hand, Trump met with hundreds of religious conservatives last month; on the other Trump has boasted of having gay friends and said he'd be better for the LBGT community than Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
- Trump has criticized President Barack Obama's unilateral directive forcing public schools' policy on transgender bathrooms but has said Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom she likes at his properties.
- Trump is not in favor of legal rights like gay marriage but has supported AIDS charities for many years and welcomed gay couples at his club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Beyond that, Trump has said virtually nothing on the issue as it pertains to what happens at the convention, other than to say he will not interfere with the platform, the Times reported.
Meanwhile, well-funded advocates are pulling and tugging to soften the language of the GOP's 2012 platform, which is "replete with disapproval of homosexuality," the Times reports.
"The bigger problem for Trump and the Republican National Committee," Lanhee Chen, who led Mitt Romney's platform efforts in 2012, told the Times "is the fact that there are these major disagreements between where Trump is on some of these issues and where the activist base of the party is."
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