Announcement of RNC Pride Coalition led some prominent social conservatives to criticize McDaniel or call for her resignation.
McDaniel, speaking at the “Spirit of Lincoln Gala,” a party held by the gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Nov. 6, announced the launch of the RNC Pride Coalition, a new outreach initiative formed in partnership with Log Cabin.
But the announcement of the initiative dismayed fellow Republicans, especially those more closely affiliated with the party’s socially conservative and evangelical wing. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as other Twitter users, balked at the idea of treating people with similar sexual orientations as an interest group, arguing that Republicans are not supposed to use appeals to “identity politics.”
Other Republicans, most prominently Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, demanded McDaniel’s resignation, claiming tolerance of homosexuality — or worse, celebrating it as a trait — undermines the party’s values and would make the Republican Party indistinguishable from Democrats, and thus unpalatable for social conservatives to continue engaging in the political sphere. Perkins also claimed that McDaniel had agreed to launch the gay outreach initiative without consulting other RNC members.