GOP CONVENTION | Excited by Trump, gay Republicans struggle with rest of GOP

CLEVELAND (AP) — Pro-gay Republicans have held Donald Trump up as the most supportive nominee in GOP history, but at this week's Republican National Convention, their excitement is clashing with the stark realization that their party is still pushing a very different message.

While Republicans seek to broaden their appeal ahead of November's election, the party adopted a platform that moves farther away from gay rights with a new admonition of gay parenting, adding language that says kids raised by a mother and father tend to be "physically and emotionally healthier." On the convention's first day, the platform maintained its opposition to gay marriage and to bathroom choice for transgender people.

Trump declares himself a "friend of the gay community," but his nominating convention has featured awkward silences on the rare occasions when gay rights have come up.

An explicit call for better GOP treatment of gays was to come Thursday from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, a Trump supporter who has faced blowback in Silicon Valley for giving the speech. Gay Republicans were eager to see what reception delegates would give Thiel, who planned to say he's proud to be gay and disagrees with the party's platform.

Connecticut State Rep. Cara Pavalock, said she's pro-Trump and pro-gay rights and that she joined the party not for what it is now, but what it will be in the future. "We have a lot of work to do," she said.

For those hoping Trump's nomination will help repair the perception that Republicans are hostile to equality, there's another challenge: Mainstream gay rights groups are denouncing the New York billionaire, arguing that tolerance for one minority group doesn't excuse prejudice toward others — like Hispanics and Muslims.

Trump, who has said he'd nominate Supreme Court justices who might overturn gay marriage, has nonetheless spoken effusively about his friendships with gay people while avoiding anti-gay rhetoric that many other GOP candidates have embraced. After a gunman claiming Islamic State allegiance killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Trump said he'd be better than Hillary Clinton because he wouldn't allow in Muslim immigrants who want to "murder gays."

At the same time, Trump has rattled many voters with unflattering comments about women, while insisting Mexico sends rapists and criminals into the U.S.

"His hatred toward anybody is a huge concern," said Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights group. "When he attacks women, he attacks us. When he attacks Muslims, he's attacking us."

Gay Republicans who attended one event in a downtown ballroom Tuesday — titled "Wake Up! (the most fab party at the RNC)" — said it promoted the message that Islam and LGBT tolerance are incompatible. Outside the party, police kept at bay protesters with signs reading "Queers Against Racism."

Some gay Republicans insist that left-leaning gay rights groups are blurring issues because they're more concerned about electing Democrats and fundraising than securing LGBT equality.

"They are hell-bent on keeping this a political issue," said Republican strategist Richard Grenell.