Two well-known Catholic Republicans announced at the end of 2023 that they are no longer against the LGBT agenda. Chris Christie, a presidential candidate, said that Pope Francis’ decision to permit priests to bless same-sex couples was enough to cause him to reconsider gay marriage.
Christie criticized a Supreme Court ruling (the Defense of Marriage Act) in 2013 while he was governor of New Jersey, which stated that marriage was defined as between men and women. He referred to this as a “bad decision” at the time. He is now okay with it and is using the pope as cover.
Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, was considered a reliable ally in the culture war. However, he vetoed a bill last week that would have prohibited minors from receiving hormone prescriptions, puberty blockers, and sex-reassignment surgery. Additionally, he said it was acceptable for children to compete athletically against girls who mistakenly identify as girls.
Why then is child genital mutilation regarded as acceptable? Why is it acceptable to victimize female athletes? According to DeWine, this is not the government’s concern. Really? Since when has the government never been concerned with the welfare of minors? There are laws in place that forbid parents from mistreating their children. We even have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex and are of a more recent vintage. The rights of women are violated when children are allowed to compete against women in sports.
Christie and DeWine appear to be imitating another Catholic Republican, Paul Ryan. “I’m not a culture war guy,” the former Speaker of the House, who currently serves on the board of Fox News’ parent company, admitted last year. “We don’t need that.”
This summer will decide the Democratic Platform for 2024. Mormon Ronna McDaniel, the head of the Republican National Committee, declared in 2021 that the “GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last four years” and will do so going forward. After receiving a lot of criticism, she altered her stance and claimed that her involvement was only about recruiting voters. She promised to defend “religious liberties, family values, and Republicans of faith.”
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee will undoubtedly feature a heated discussion of the Platform. What it says about the LGBT agenda will show whether the Christie-DeWine-Ryan wing will support Nervous Nellies like McDaniels in their efforts to sell out “Republicans of faith.”
