Texas Republicans just passed a new platform that includes a shocking number of anti-LGBTQ provisions, including a call for the  repeal of marriage equality, non-discrimination rules, and hate crime laws in Texas; support for conversion therapy, a practice that has been deemed child abuse by leading LGBTQ organizations; and opposition to “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”.

OutSmart Mag: Texas GOP Approves 24 anti-LGBTQ Platform Planks, Including Support for ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy

Happy Pride Month from the Republican Party of Texas!

Delegates to the GOP state convention in San Antonio approved a rabidly anti-LGBTQ party platform over the weekend.

Texas Republicans once again officially endorsed the dangerous, discredited practice of “ex-gay” therapy, including for “self-motivated” youth. They called on state officials to reject the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, and repeal Texas’ hate crimes law.

The 2018 platform also calls for the repeal of local nondiscrimination ordinances that protect LGBTQ people, and states that businesses and their employees should have a license to discriminate based on their religious beliefs.

The document opposes “all efforts to validate transgender identity,” and calls for banning trans military service, and requiring trans people to use restrooms in government buildings, including schools, based on the sex they were assigned at birth. It states that, “The official position of the Texas schools with respect to transgenderism is that there are only two genders: male and female.”

Amid backlash from some younger Republicans, delegates removed an especially heinous anti-gay sentence from the platform stating that, “Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental truths that have been ordained by God in the Bible.” However, the 2018 document remains as anti-LGBTQ as ever.

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