Young Conservatives Leadership Committee members advocate for the freedom to marry

August 27, 2012

Members of the leadership committee for Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry have been hard at work providing a face for young conservatives committed to ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. Over the past few weeks, members of the leadership committee have been speaking out about why they support marriage for all couples, and why their fellow conservatives, Republicans, or Libertarians should join them in calling for the freedom to marry.

Last week, Sarah Longwell, a vice president at a Washington, D.C. communications firm, appeared on The Big Picture with Thom Hartman to discuss the intersection of her conservative values and her support for the freedom to marry. She explained to Hartman, "It is not the role of government to be telling grown-ups whether they can make a lifelong commitment to each other." She also said: 

This is really what we're trying to talk to conservatives about - we're trying to explain to them that their conservative values and principles are 100 percent in line with giving people - all people - the freedom to marry. For me, being a conservative is really about minimizing the role of government and maximizing the role of individual responsibility and individual freedom. 

Watch the full clip of Sarah's appearance below.  

Earlier in the week, Tyler Deaton spoke with Thomas Roberts on MSNBC about the Republican Party's official party platform language, which denounces same-sex couples and affirms a discriminatory view of marriage. Deaton served as a leader for Standing Up for New Hampshire Families last year when a Republican-dominated Congress voted against the repeal of the freedom to marry. Deaton responded directly to the Republican party platform, saying that while the platform is unfortunate, it is not a binding agreement and it does not speak for all Republicans. He told Roberts:

I'm not sure that the platform is really a great indicator on where the Republican party is at on this issue. There's tremendous progress across this country with conservatives. We've seen that there's a lot of people out there who need to have this voice shared: That you can be a conservative and you can support the freedom to marry. I'm just concerned that the platform is a lagging indicator of where the party is on this issue.

Last week, the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee as a whole filed a letter to the Republican National Committee telling them that the new platform is out of step with the majority of Republicans, especially the next generation of the party's leaders. You can read the entire letter here.  

Sarah and Tyler did terrific work criticizing the anti-marriage, anti-gay language in the Republican Party platform. We applaud them for serving as megaphones for the large population of conservatives who actively and passionately support marriage for same-sex couples, and we thank them for standing up for all couples and explaining why their conservative values compel them to support the freedom to marry.