Gay conservatives have been a force majeure in the GOP for decades. Recognition has finally come.

For the first time since 2016, the Republican Party has updated their official party platform. The platform is full of America-first rhetoric and explanations of how the party seeks to serve and benefit all Americans. Overall, it is very traditionally Republican. However, one chunk of the platform seems to be missing. The Republican Party has officially removed all verbiage that might be seen as anti-LGBT.

In 2016, the platform included a section defining marriage as an institution between a man and a woman and vehemently disagreed with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, the decision that stipulated that marriage was an unenumerated Constitutional right for all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans. “Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values,” the 2016 platform read. It goes on to say, “We also condemn the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges… In Obergefell, five unelected lawyers robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

In 2020, the GOP did not issue a new platform, with the party’s Executive Committee voting to adopt the 2016 platform.

The new 2024 platform has removed all of the specific language and has opted for a more generic overview of the family unit with no mention of the sex of the spouses and parents. In its section detailing how the party seeks to “Empower American Families”, the platform dictates, “Republicans will promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage, the blessings of childhood, the foundational role of families, and supports working parents. We will end policies that punish families.”

This is a huge step forward for the Republican Party—the “Big Tent” that we have always claimed to be. Gay and lesbian conservatives have been a force majeure in the Republican Party for decades, and the recognition has finally come.

Former President Donald Trump, with his new wave of populism, was the first president to enter office supporting gay marriage. Now that his vision for America has helped solidify and unify the Republican Party, the more tolerant view of “government get out of my bedroom” has become commonplace in the party, and it has updated its platform to reflect that.

As the new unified face of the Republican Party celebrated at the national convention in Milwaukee last week, a small minority of Never Trumpers in the party were unhappy with the new inclusive language, taking to social media to voice their bigotry.

One such voice is that of Jenna Ellis, the traitorous shrew who testified against Trump in Fulton County, Ga. In one of many unhinged posts on X, Ellis condemned gay Republicans as “godless”.

“Christians will have to reconcile the fact we are now in the minority in America. The RNC excised pro-life, traditional marriage, biblical values, and pastors to instead affirm the LGBTQ Log Cabin Republicans and platform a Satanist, self-described ‘slut,’ and a Sikh prayer. The majority of Republicans now also affirm godless values and inclusivity at the expense of truth,” she wrote.

The “self-described ‘slut'” was in reference to the appearance of model and social media celebrity Amber Rose at the convention. Rose gave a heartfelt speech about her father and her recent political realignment toward supporting Trump. Rose has 24 million followers on Instagram.

It seems Mrs. Ellis is of the opinion that gay and lesbian Americans cannot be Christian. As a conservative gay male who is also a devout Catholic and Christian, I take great offense to her characterization, and I can say with certainty that many others do as well. Jenna Ellis has shown herself to be the Judas of the Trump administration and to the Republican Party as a whole. At least Judas had the grace to remove himself from the scenario after his betrayal; Ellis keeps popping up with her unwanted points of view like a whack-a-mole.

The bigger issue here, however, is Ellis’s lack of distinction between religion and political ideology. America was founded on Judeo-Christian values—ensuring all God’s human creations enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That has always been and remains to be the cornerstone of the conservative political movement and the Republican Party. The party does not espouse and is not linked to one particular strain of Christianity. In fact, the pious, you-can’t-sit-with-us attitude of this minority of the Trump-haters is itself unchristian. Jesus dined with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other pariahs of society, after all.

Gay and lesbian conservatives should be lauded by the party, not shunned. We are the loudest and most effective voices when it comes to combatting the radical alphabet mafia. We condemn the grooming, transing, and sexualization of children. We denounce men destroying women’s sports. We champion personal religious freedom and parental rights. We do all of this because it is the right and moral thing to do, a far cry from the “godless values” that Mrs. Ellis accused us of having.

The new inclusive face of the Republican Party will be a huge reason that more Americans change their party affiliation and vote to re-elect Donald Trump this November. The updated platform is a welcome breath of fresh air for the conservative movement in America. We don’t have to agree on every single thing. We don’t have to condone every action of one another. We just have to agree that the security and continuation of the greatest country on the planet is our priority and welcome all of those who want to join in that pursuit.