If you ever wonder whether the LGBT vote is important - and clearly, the Republicans don't give much thought to the issue - consider this:

President Obama had a 3-to-1 edge on Mitt Romney among this voting bloc in 2012. Polls showed that without that LGBT support, he would not have won Ohio. Without this massive disparity, he would not have won Florida.

The Republicans said they learned from this rake-stepping piece of electoral comedy, even authoring an "autopsy report" after getting creamed in that election. Inclusion was the catch-word: They vowed to withstand the homophobic impulse and reach out to minority communities, notably LGBT, and that it would be reflected in their party platform in 2016.

Fast forward to last week, when they decided to party like it's 1952.

While any political platform lacks the power to bind a nominee to every plank, it symbolizes a party's principles and ambitions; and this Republican platform clearly wants LGBT people to return to the closet and stay as far away from the mainstream as possible, because in their minds that's what it takes to make America great again.

Start with this: Even though marriage equality is legal in 50 states, "our laws and our government's regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman," the platform read, "(and) we do not accept the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal."

Never mind that 61 percent of Americans support marriage equality - as do a majority of young Republicans. The platform committee just couldn't help itself.

The Republicans also "oppose government discrimination" against businesses that "decline to sell items or services to individuals for activities that go against their religious views."

They still want to Pray Away the Gay, by sanctioning the crackpot scam known as "conversion therapy," because Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council believes that parents must "determine the proper treatment for their minor children" who identify as LGBT.

And, in the ultimate expression of bigotry and inhumanity, this happened:

Pro-gay Republicans tried to insert language in the national security section that would condemn Islamic terrorists for targeting LGBT people. One month after Orlando, it didn't seem like a big ask. The only openly gay platform committee member, Rachel Hoff, suggested to her colleagues, "Can you not, at the very least, stand up for our right not to be killed?"

Apparently not: That measure was defeated.

Andy Towle, an influential gay blogger, put it this way: "Today's Republican party is an Anti-LGBT Hate Group."

If you think this platform reflects mainstream attitudes, most of its 66 pages follow the same sclerotic vein.

Put it this way: It affirms coal as a "clean form of energy," but views porn as a "public health crisis" - the apparent exception being Melania Trump posing starkers on the cover of GQ magazine.

Got that? Porn is a health menace, but toxic emissions are not.

The same platform advocates teaching the Bible in public schools, because "a good understanding of the Bible" is "indispensable to the development of an educated citizenry."

If they can find that part of the scripture that teaches the mistreatment and contempt for such a large part of the general population, we'd like to read it.

What the platform's authors don't seem to get is that most voters know an LGBT person, and they probably like or love that person much more than the candidate or the demented manifesto that now defines him. The GOP just made that person's vote very easy.

More: Recent Star-Ledger editorials.

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