Your response to this e-alert is needed TODAY!
The Illinois GOP Convention is currently taking place and will conclude on Saturday. With it has come the consideration of a revised state party platform. The Illinois Review reported that the committee tentatively plans to remove the one-man, one-woman marriage plank from the 2016 platform. This is clearly a bow to same-sex marriage and those within the LGBT community.
According to sources from the Illinois Review, 11 of the 18 members of the Illinois Republican Party platform committee reportedly agree that the one-man, one-woman marriage plank should be removed from the 2016 platform.
The new platform is expected to have the following section removed:
C. While not universally achievable, the ideal environment for children is within a two-parent family based on the principle of marriage between one man and one woman. The Republican Party endorses a constitutional amendment protecting our Defense of Marriage Act and enshrining in constitutional law marriage as it is defined in our “DOMA.”
D. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate the loving commitment and man and a woman make to each other in marriage. Our laws should strongly support and celebrate a loving, marriage couple bringing new life into the world and rearing their children in a secure and nurturing environment from conception to adulthood. No law should undermine the importance of that union, divide that union nor unduly burden the efforts of parents to rear a family in a safe and nurturing environment.
Sourcing the “big tent” excuse, platform committee members in favor of removing the plank say the change will bring younger people into the party. Others believe the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage mandates the removal of the plank.
Pat Brady, who lobbied Republicans on behalf of the ACLU to legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois, is on the 2016 Illinois GOP platform committee.
Former Illinois GOP state chairman Pat Brady is on this year’s Illinois GOP platform committee representing the 6th CD. Brady lobbied Republican lawmakers on behalf of the ACLU to legalize same sex marriage in Illinois.
Vocal supporters of the plank removal also include platform members from the Chicago area and surrounding congressional districts – especially U.S. Senator Mark Kirk staffer Cindy Burke (5th CD) and Schaumburg Township GOP Committeeman Ryan Higgins (8th CD).
UPDATE: The proposed wording for the 2016 platform
VII. STRENGTHENING ILLINOIS FAMILIES
A. We recognize that a strong family, based on the institution of marriage, sanctified by God and strengthened by the legal protections afforded to that institution by government, is the basic building block of society. Accordingly, we support public policies that promote the formation, endurance, and autonomy of the nuclear family and that empower parents to provide a safe and nurturing home environment for their children.
B. We recognize that religious freedom is the “first” freedom, as enshrined in the First Amendment. While we oppose discrimination in any form, we also oppose public policies that seek to compel or coerce individuals, businesses, religious institutions, or other organizations to violate their core religious beliefs, including, without limitation, by participating in ceremonies that run contrary to their core religious beliefs.
C. We believe that parents—not bureaucrats—are best-positioned to make decisions regarding the health and welfare of their minor children, and we support public policies that preserve and strengthen parental rights.
D. We believe that the disintegration of the nuclear family is a leading cause of generational poverty and that a connection exists in this and other respects between “social” and “fiscal” public policy issues.
E. We recognize that the states reserved to themselves—implicitly throughout the U.S. Constitution and explicitly in the Tenth Amendment—the power to legislate on matters related to marriage and family, and we oppose efforts by the federal government to encroach on that reserved power.
The final meeting of the Platform Committee of the Illinois Republican State Convention will be held TOMORROW, Friday, May 20, at 10:00 a.m.
TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY! E-mail and/or call each member of the platform committee and urge them to preserve the definition of marriage in the 2016 Illinois GOP Platform.
Platform Committee and Expected Position:
Kathy Hilton – remove plank: [email protected] / 815-919-2772
Jurt Diekelman – remove plank: [email protected] / 708-877-5500
Brent Woods – unknown: [email protected] / 708-717-0955
Angel Garcia – remove plank: [email protected] / 312-375-0979
Cindy Burke – remove plank: [email protected] / 630-673-3219
Pat Brady — remove plank: [email protected] / 312-972-7348
Linda Tobensky – unknown: [email protected] / 708-351-7790
Ryan Higgins — remove plank: [email protected] / 312-590-6186
Dave Carabotta – keep plank: [email protected] / 312-217-4255
Marjorie L. Kubalanza — keep plank: [email protected] / 847-687-4763
Raquel Mitchell — keep plank: [email protected] / 630-936-9578
Patti Howard — keep plank: [email protected] / 618-889-6943
Terri Koyne — keep plank: [email protected] / 217-851-4789
Burt Minor – unknown: [email protected] / 630-674-9096
J.C. Kowa — keep plank: [email protected] / 618-838-1516
Jan Klaas — keep plank: [email protected] / 815-621-9497
Elisha French — remove plank: [email protected] / 309-351-8163
Connie Nord – unknown: [email protected] / 309-275-0811
Chair Mike Bigger — remove plank: [email protected] / 309-238-0113
Co-Chair Blair Garber – unknown: [email protected] / 312-961-1791
Co-Chair Brian Colgan — remove plank: [email protected] / 630-202-5832
Make it easy! Copy each list of e-mail addresses and paste each into a new e-mail, write the appropriate message according to their current position and send.
Remove the plank: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Keep the Plank: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Unknown: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
PLEASE PRAY for each member of the committee. May the Lord give them eyes to see the reality of the situation and have the courage to do what it right.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke
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