00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d7d40002Coverage of the issues, races and people shaping Kansas elections in 2016, including statewide coverage in partnership with KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, and High Plains Public Radio.

Kansas GOP Delegate: Party Position On Same-Sex Marriage 'Limits Our Big Tent'

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Dalton Glasscock, co-founder of Sedgwick County Young Republicans, and a delegate to the GOP convention in Cleveland.
Nadya Faulx

Republican Party leaders have been crafting their platform ahead of the GOP convention in Cleveland next week. Delegates will decide whether or not to adopt the platform that includes opposition to same-sex marriage.

Among the proposed planks is one calling for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that legalized same-sex unions in all 50 states.

Twenty-one-year-old Dalton Glasscock is co-founder of the Sedgwick County Young Republicans group and one of the youngest delegates to attend this year's convention. He says there are differing opinions regarding marriage equality among the Republican Party.

"I think as Republicans we need to include many of those voices in our discussions. I feel the current platform limits our big tent and really makes us an exclusive party when 61 percent of millennials support same-sex marriage," he says. "I think we are hurting ourselves in the future and the future movement of the party as well."

Other platform planks included building a physical wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and relaxing restrictions on certain firearms. Both were shaped in large part by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

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Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

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Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.
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