(Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel

We thank the Indiana Republican Party for an overwhelming vote June 9 to reaffirm language in their platform that defines marriage as a union “between a man and a woman.”

State GOP Chairman Kyle Hupfer had proposed a new draft of a portion of the party platform that would have removed that definition and recognized a variety of families, including “all loving adults” rearing children, saying the new draft was a “compromise” and “inclusive” and that the goal “was to try not to offend anyone.”

We wrote here last week prior to the GOP Convention on June 8-9 in Evansville that state Republicans should be more concerned with standing up for the core beliefs of their base rather than worrying about whether they offend those who don’t like them.

Republicans at the convention responded positively to the outpouring of sentiment supporting traditional marriage in spite of the fact that current law allows same-sex marriage.

The vote was a victory for social conservatives who inserted the affirmation of what they call a “traditional family” into the platform in 2014, when Mike Pence was governor.

The lone Allen County representative on the 24-member platform committee was Cathie Humbarger, executive director of Allen County Right to Life. Jackson County did not have a representative on the committee.

“There were a good number of us that pushed hard for the language supporting traditional marriage to stay the same or be strengthened,” Humbarger told us after the convention.

“An overwhelming number of email comments to the committee supported traditional marriage between a man and woman. The same was true of those who testified at the public hearings.

“I am encouraged to know that so many understand that families based on a marriage between a man and woman is the foundation of our nation. Children have a right to grow up with a mother and father in an intact family.”

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