BREAKING: Connecticut House minority leader and Republican National Convention delegate Themis Klarides is refusing to denounce the Republican Party’s extreme 2016 platform. While she missed the unanimous platform vote on Monday, she admitted today that her absence did not stem from “a desire to distance herself from Donald J. Trump, the Republican National Convention or the GOP platform,” according to the Connecticut Mirror.

“That the Connecticut delegation unanimously supported the GOP platform shows once again just how out of touch our state’s Republican Party has become. The platform targets LGBT people by calling to overturn the Supreme Court decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide and even calling for scientifically debunked conversion therapy. It attacks women’s reproductive rights by calling for abortion to be made illegal and for defunding Planned Parenthood. It ignores science by calling coal a “clean” energy source, and it calls for the Bible to be taught in our public schools.

“These are not the values Connecticut holds dear. Discrimination will not make America great again. Yet, our Republican leaders made no objection and voted in unanimity to adopt this dreadful platform. Themis Klarides and the rest of the GOP legislators at the RNC need to explain why they support these regressive policies.” – Connecticut Democratic Party spokesman Leigh Appleby