In the US, while more and more Republicans declare their support for same-sex marriage, the party remains officially opposed to gay unions. Its National Platform calls for a ban on such measures, going as far as to amend the Constitution to put a stop to sexual equality.

A recent Huffington Post survey showed that 42 state branches of the Republican Party (out of a possible 50) have totally ignored same-sex marriage in their respective platforms. In Texas, for example, Grand Old Party members believe that “the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit.”

But nationally there are reasons to be cheerful. Dissidence is growing within the ranks and LGBT-tolerant Republicans are pressing for a total rewrite of the National Platform in 2016. Over the last year or so there have been valiant attempts in Indiana and Nevada to do away with opposition to gay marriage, but Republican activists were defeated.

Pressure groups such as the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry is spending over $1 million to re-write the National Platform. Leader Tyler Deaton is devoted to abolishing anti-LGBT rhetoric within the GOP.

Freedom to Marry, the organisation that Deaton’s group is affiliated to, successfully campaigned to persuade the Democrat Party to include support for same-sex unions in its National Platform. Freedom to Marry’s national director Marc Solomon isn’t optimistic about pulling off the same coup in the GOP.

‘We’re not doing what we did with the Democratic platform,’ he said. ‘In that, we called for freedom-to-marry language, because that’s where the party was. And it was still a heavy lift and a push because the president wasn’t there yet. In this platform, what we’re saying is…

“Look, we recognize there is a mix of opinions on this issue and that people’s opinions are changing quickly on it.”‘