Maine GOP Platform Reaffirms Stance Against Marriage Equality

The Maine Republican Party adopted a new platform Friday, reaffirming its opposition to same-sex marriage even as the issue gains wider acceptance nationwide among conservatives.

State party officials adopted the platform Friday, as their convention kicked off, according to the Associated Press. The platform defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The 2012 platform had a similar definition of marriage.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), who is running for reelection, also opposes same-sex marriage, which is nevertheless legal in the state. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has pushed for LGBT equality in some areas, has not yet come out in support of marriage equality.

Earlier this month, Nevada Republicans dropped opposition to same-sex marriage from their platform. The Indiana GOP did the same in 2012. This year, however, the Massachusetts Republican Party added same-sex marriage opposition back into its platform.

Opposition to same-sex marriage is also part of the national GOP platform, although the group Young Conservative for the Freedom to Marry has launched a campaign to remove that language.

The new Maine GOP platform, according to the AP, also urges the repeal of Common Core education standards. But it no longer calls for the Department of Education's elimination or refers to global warming as a "myth" as it did in 2010, when it catered to tea party activists.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is set to address convention delegates in Maine on Saturday.