Lindsey Graham: GOP Should Change Its Position on Gay Marriage

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said this morning that he believes that the Republican Party should change its official position on gay marriage. The current GOP platform affirms the party’s support for a Constitutional amendment that defines marriage “as the union of one man and one woman.” But Graham is a compassionate guy, and he realizes that that position might “hurt” the Republican party—optics are clearly what’s most important here.

Graham said on Meet the Press:

“What I want to do is protect the religious liberties of those who believe that opposing same sex marriage as part of their faith. So no I would not engage in the Constitutional amendment process as a party going into 2016. Accept the Court’s ruling. Fight for the religious liberties of every American.”

Graham’s commitment to nebulous “religious liberties” echoes Jeb Bush’s statements on SCOTUS’s recent decision, a talking point that seems to have quickly cohered as the serious GOP position. How exactly the court’s decision infringes on religious liberty isn’t quite clear, but conspiratorial stories of Christian persecution wrought by gay marriage are sure to unfold throughout the Republican primary.