Gay MO Republican faces another censure vote from Jackson County GOP over marriage amendment
For the second time in a month, an openly gay Missouri Republican lawmaker will face a censure vote from the Jackson County Republican Party for trying to redefine marriage in the state constitution as between “two individuals” instead of “a man and a woman.”
The planned censure, scheduled for Monday evening, targets state Rep. Chris Sander, a Lone Jack Republican. The resolution accuses Sander of deviating from the party’s platform for trying to recognize same-sex marriage through a constitutional amendment.
While federal law enshrines same-sex marriage, the Missouri Constitution still defines marriage as between a man and a woman under an amendment approved by voters in 2004. Sander’s proposed constitutional amendment, filed this year, would bring Missouri in line with the federal “Respect for Marriage Act” signed by President Joe Biden late last year.
“The Jackson County GOP censure and the Missouri Republican Party platform represent a small minority of leadership who conflict with our US Constitution,” Sander said in a text to The Star. “The committee members do not like gay Republicans.”
Last month, Jackson County GOP Chair Mark Anthony Jones ruled a similar censure motion out of order, later calling it “dead on arrival.”
Monday’s resolution was filed by party committee member Dave Thomas from Grandview, who also filed the previous attempt. The party will consider the censure at 7 p.m. at Tiff N Jay’s in Lee’s Summit.
“The Missouri Republican Platform states that ‘the Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS Marriage as being between one man and one woman,’” the resolution says in part.
Jones, who serves as the spokesperson for the party, refused to comment when reached by phone Monday, telling The Star to “quit calling.”
Jones, who was first elected party chair in 2014, touts himself as the first openly gay elected Republican county committee chairman in the country, according to his Linkedin profile.
Teresa McBride, the county GOP vice chair, on Monday called on Sander to withdraw his constitutional amendment in an email filled with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
“The mere fact that you want to change the wording from ‘one man and one woman’ to ‘two individuals’ is an abomination to mankind and to God himself,” McBride wrote in the email, obtained by The Star. “The term ‘two individuals’ could be defined and interpreted in many different ways and open the door for pedophiles to legally rape and physically harm children. That is disgusting and promoting an agenda as such, is an abomination to our country.”
McBride did not return a call and text for comment on Monday.
The county party will consider another petition, also filed by Thomas, that states any member of the party could be censured for trying to define marriage as anything other than between a man or a woman.
