Weigel

The RNC Member Who Posted Anti-Gay Facebook Items Got the RNC to Reaffirm Its Stance Against Gay Marriage

Lee Ann Hopkins and Andrea Grill of Alexandria, Virg., kiss after becoming engaged during a rally outside of the U.S Supreme Court on March 26, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

I see now why BuzzFeed does those headline-and-photo stories; what else is there to this one? For a couple of weeks, Michigan RNC member Dave Agema has explained that he didn’t mean to offend anybody when he posted a critique of the “homosexual lifestyle” that cited an essay written by a part-time Klansman.* (I don’t believe he knew about the Klansman part.) Republicans in Michigan, prodded by reporters, asked if Agema might resign. He decided not to.

Fast-forward to this afternoon and the annual RNC meeting, held this year in Los Angeles.

The Republican National Committee today approved a resolution sponsored by Michigan Committeeman Dave Agema that reaffirmed the party platform and opposition to gay marriage.

“I am pleased with our success in the face of unrelenting criticism from the left and want to thank national social conservative leaders who made their voices heard loud and clear in this process,” Agema said in a release. “I hope that we can all now move forward and talk about other issues … We have won the battle, and I will have nothing more to say on this matter.”

That’s all, folks. Who doubted it would end like this?

“The platform is clear about the party’s position on marriage, so the resolution wasn’t necessary,” says GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia. “This resolution was motivated by anti-gay bigotry and brought forward by RNC members who just don’t like gay people. Tolerating this kind of bigotry will only serve to turn off more and more voters, and until the leadership of the RNC is willing to confront and denounce bigotry in its own ranks, they will continue to lose elections. I guess they are not finished losing. Giving in to the Dave Agema & Tony Perkins crowd is like negotiating with terrorists. Doing so only encourages them and in the end the hostage still ends up dead.”

Correction, April 15, 2013: This post originally said the critique of homosexuality was written by a part-time member of the Ku Klux Klan. The author of the critique, Frank Joseph, is not a member of the Klan, but Joseph cites an essay written by Dr. Edward R. Fields, who the Jewish Anti-Defamation League has described as an active white supremacist.