Gay Republicans are torn over supporting Donald Trump. | AP Photo Gay Republicans want more from Trump LGBT conservatives are encouraged by the Republican nominee's overtures, but are disappointed he didn't push for platform changes.

CLEVELAND — Gay Republicans had hoped for more from Donald Trump.

He’s certainly courting them: Trump became the first GOP nominee to mention gay Americans in his acceptance speech when he pledged to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” from terrorism – even ad-libbing praise for the die-hard Republican audience when they applauded that sentiment.


But some say Trump has already missed opportunities to fight for their cause.

He invited Caitlyn Jenner to use the facility of her choice in Trump Tower after North Carolina passed its transgender bathroom law, but the Republicans’ 2016 platform says it would be “illegal and dangerous” to let trans students decide which door to enter. He attended Elton John’s wedding, but the platform still calls for overturning the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling – and Trump has promised to appoint judges who would do that.

“I will applaud Donald Trump the person” for his individual embrace of gay people, said Christian Berle, an openly gay Republican. “But he would be Donald Trump the president.”

Even without his help, gay Republicans and their allies are gearing up to push for new anti-discrimination laws, with a big assist from Jenner. And they expect to come back to the platform committee savvier and with more delegates on their side in 2020.

“We’re actually emboldened,” said Margaret Hoover, president of the American Unity Fund, which has put big money into both electing pro-LGBT Republicans and changing the platform.

But in the short run, gay Republicans are torn over supporting Trump.

There is frustration about the platform, said Gregory T. Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans. But the convention has also had highlights for LGBT conservatives: Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) all gave the gay community positive shout-outs in their speeches. On Thursday, Pay Pal co-founder Peter Thiel declared from the stage of the Quicken Loans Arena that he is “proud to be gay” – drawing mostly applause and a few scattered boos – and he called the bathroom debate a “distraction.”

“Who cares?” he said, prompting loud cheers.

So will Log Cabin Republicans factor in Trump’s “continued and unabashed and unprecedented outreach to the LGBT community?” Angelo added. “You bet we will.”

The balance will become more clear after the Log Cabins send out their quadrennial survey to tens of thousands of members around the country, but the fight ahead of the national board’s vote threatens to be contentious.

Then again, endorsement decisions for the Log Cabin Republicans have never been easy, forcing people to choose between their conservative ideologies and sexual identities. The group chose not to endorse George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, as he campaigned on a traditional marriage amendment. But they backed Sen. John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

“I think they had a few private commitments from the campaign about where he would be on LGBT issues,” said Berle, a former Log Cabin official who didn’t back the Romney endorsement then – and is active in Never Trump efforts now.

Some gay Republicans are confident that Trump would be even more LGBT-friendly than his public comments.

Richard Grenell resigned as Romney's foreign policy spokesman after socially conservative groups complained loudly about hi status as an openly gay supporter of same-sex marriage. Since then, he’s made no secret of the fact that he would like to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“I think Trump is the best GOP nominee we've ever had on equality issues,” Grenell said. “So it's an easy support for me."

The platform was a major letdown for LGBT Republicans. With the gay marriage question settled by the Supreme Court, they hoped to get the party to at least move on, if not embrace gay Americans. And to help push them along, the American Unity Fund, backed by Paul Singer and other GOP megadonors, waged an unusually organized effort to install LGBT-friendly platform delegates.

There was also the personal plea of Rachel Hoff. Though she was the first openly gay platform delegate, Hoff hadn’t been active within the party on LGBT issues before, instead building her conservative credentials with over a decade of work on campaigns and as a right-leaning defense analyst.

She thought this “might be my moment to actually be a voice that can be useful in this limited way," Hoff said in an interview. The amendment to strike anti-LGBT language on marriage failed, as did a lower-key effort to acknowledge the threat from “radical Islamic terrorism” to women, religious minorities and LGBT people.

Republicans gathered at a “Big Tent Brunch” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Wednesday thought Trump could have been more helpful.

While Trump took an unusually hands-off approach to the document, his advisers “were absolutely there, and they were absolutely on the issues that matter most to Mr. Trump, shaping what was happening,” said Hoff, citing immigration and trade. “And so that tells me that perhaps LGBT issues are not one of the most important things to Donald Trump.”

Others are less concerned about that – especially since the Supreme Court has made the marriage issue something of a moot point.

"We're not going to ever go backwards," said Gregory Gandrud, an openly gay Republican from California.

And support has been building, longtime LGBT GOP activists say.

"I’ve been to every convention since 1992,” Grenell said. “We're not there yet, but we have made incredible progress."

He added, "I'm flooded with support as I walk through the convention, but with politicians and activists who privately tell me that they're totally with me. And I say to everybody, thank you for your private support, but I need your public support.”

Another sign of a shift: 21 of the platform committee’s 112 members backed removing the anti-gay language, up from five in 2012.

Several Republican lawmakers were spotted at the brunch where Jenner spoke, including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Mimi Walters (R-Calif.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm.

But getting them to appear with her in a picture was a tougher sell.

Jenner is key to American Unity Fund’s legislative strategy going forward, Hoover said – but unlike the open-press brunch, her meetings on the Hill will be private.

“I think the Republican Party needs to understand, they need to know people who are trans,” Jenner said at the brunch.

American Unity Fund is focused on getting Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) re-elected in November. Just as American public opinion more broadly has changed in favor of gay rights as more individuals have exited the closet, Portman is a model for bringing Republicans around: his gay son persuaded him to back same-sex marriage.

Legislation that makes LGBT a protected class under federal statute is top of the agenda for the next Congress, Hoover said.

“We’re the only group that is able to navigate the concerns that Republicans have,” she said, namely around religious freedom protections.

And in a rare move for a political organization with paid staff, Hoover said an anti-discrimination law would be the end of American Freedom Fund’s mandate.

“We close our doors, we’re done.”