Despite millennial voters becoming one of the most liberal generations in history, the Republican Party adopted one of the most conservative platforms this year, especially in regards to LGBT rights. It refers to marriage as a union between “one man and one woman” and supports conversion therapy for LGBT individuals.
A previous study by FTI Consulting found that 83 percent of millennials favor equal rights for transgender people. The new platform alienated many millennials who are known to be the “gayest” generation, considering that 7 percent identify as either gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
“It’s not just that 61 percent of Americans support marriage equality, but an overwhelming majority of young people—even a majority of young Republicans—support marriage equality,” said Rachel Hoff, the first openly LGBT committee member in the history of the Republican convention. Hoff believes that this issue is a “deal-breaker” for young people.
However, the GOP maintains its conservative platform, though millennials are beginning to push for greater equality for all and maintain more futuristic mindsets. Former presidential candidate Ben Carson spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday and had strong words for transgender people and their millennial supporters.
“For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is,” Carson said. “And now all of a sudden we don’t know anymore. Now, is that the height of absurdity? Because today you feel like a woman, even though everything about you genetically says that you’re a man or vice versa?”
Carson expressed frustration over a willingness to embrace whims concerning gender.
“Wouldn’t that be the same as if you woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan or reading some books and said, ‘You know what? I’m Afghanistan,’” he said. “I know I don’t look that way. My ancestors came from Sweden, or something, I don’t know. But I really am. And if you say I’m not, (then) you’re racist.”
The Obama administration has pursued equal rights for transgender people. A letter from the Departments of Education and Justice was sent to schools to ensure that “transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school environment.”
Carson is unimpressed with the attempts from schools and from “social progressives” to make the controversy a “civil rights issue.”
“Anytime the secular progressives want to get people on their side, they go back to the civil rights movement, and they say this is a civil rights issue and it’s not a civil rights issue,” Carson said. “But … we have to be willing to call out people for this absolutely ridiculous stuff that they’re trying to put over on us, that they’re trying to put over on our children.”
From the rhetoric of the Republican platform, it appears that gaining the support of millennials is not worth compromising basic conservative principles.
