Jason Noble

jnoble2@dmreg.com

A group of Republican activists are traveling through Iowa this week encouraging their party to moderate on same-sex marriage.

Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry is meeting with party leaders and activists as well as local media, arguing that rejecting the anti-gay rhetoric and outlook often evident in the GOP is critical to broadening its appeal and ensuring its viability in the future.

Led by Margaret Hoover, a political strategist and the great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, the group's primary goal is to remove language opposing same-sex marriage from the national party platform. They're visiting Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-voting states to encourage the selection of national convention delegates who will favor more neutral language in the 2016 platform.

"We want to excise the anti-gay language from the party platform in an effort to communicate that the party is more tolerant, is more inclusive, is a friendly place to be, is not spiteful, does not dislike people who are different," Hoover said.

Republicans in Iowa's 1st Congressional District attempted to rewrite the state party platform this year to remove explicit opposition the same-sex marriage and include instead language calling for government to have no role in marriage at all. Although approved by delegates at the district-level, the language was not included in the platform approved at the state convention.

Support for same-sex marriage matches conservative values, members of the group argued in a meet with the Des Moines Register, and opposition to it may be driving away voters who otherwise would vote Republican.

"This is one of those issues that as we find a way to more amicably agree to disagree, I think we'll be able to make better inroads with folks who feel they have to write us off,"Rek LeCounte, another member of the group visiting Iowa this week.

The group is a part of the larger Freedom to Marry effort, which advocates for national legalization of same-sex marriage and "a complete end to federal marriage discrimination."