GOP platform revives hot-button topic of gay conversion

While gay conversion therapy for minors has been banned in five states and in Washington, D.C., backing for the practice is alive and well, with gay rights advocates accusing Republicans of endorsing the idea at their party’s national convention in Cleveland.

Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest GOP organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender conservatives, said he was “mad as hell” over the platform, calling gay conversion therapy a debunked psychological practice to “pray the gay away.”

Of the five states that have banned gay conversion therapy, California went first, in 2012.

[...] Oregon, Illinois, Vermont have followed suit, along with New Jersey, where Republican Gov. Chris Christie backed the prohibition.

Pence’s selection as Donald Trump’s running mate, combined with what Angelo calls “the most anti-LGBT platform” in the 162-year history of the GOP Party, assures that gay rights will be an explosive issue in the 2016 election.