Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans last Thursday joined the leaders of 49 other collegiate Democrat and Republican organizations in a statement supporting marriage equality for LGBTQ couples.
The statement, written as a joint effort by the student Democratic and Republican groups at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), calls on young leaders to make public their beliefs on the issue of gay marriage.
We, the Presidents of College Democrats and College Republicans chapters from across America, stand united to affirm the right of all Americans to marry the person they love, regardless of gender," the statement says. "We challenge our nation's leaders to join us in defense of marriage equality for LGBTQ couples."
According to Tufts Democrats President Bronwen Raff, Penn Democrats communications director Jane Meyer contacted her early last month about the statement. After an exchange of emails, Raff, a senior, decided to include her signature.
After being similarly contacted, the Tufts Republicans Executive Board met to discuss whether or not they would sign the statement, Tufts Republicans co-president Bennett Gillogly said.
"We recognize the political culture surrounding gay marriage right now, and we gladly embrace the opportunity to engage in a discourse with our community," Gillogly, a junior, said.
Although the Tufts Democrats and Republicans made independent decisions to sign, the statement ultimately re-facilitated their relationship, Raff said.
"It was sort of the catalyst that allowed us to reach out to the Republican group again," Raff said. "I think that communicating with them on this issue of marriage equality allowed us to kind of open the door to other forms of bipartisan collaboration."
The two groups recently collaborated to co-host an Issues of the Future Symposium on Immigration Reform on April 5 and 8.
"[Tufts Republicans] and Democrats are in a great place for bipartisan discussion," Gillogly said. "There is no problem facing our nation that we feel can't be resolved by politicians on both sides of the aisle cooperating for the good of the country."
Tufts is one of only a few schools to have leaders from both political parties sign the statement, Raff noted.
"Young leaders around the nation are standing around marriage equality, and it's a bipartisan issue at this point," she said. "I think that's really what the power was supposed to say that a lot of young conservatives are becoming more socially liberal, and to illustrate that in a kind of visual."
Meyer said that the idea for the statement came out of a Valentine's Day event that the Penn Democrats and Republicans co-organized, in which the parties came together around the campus' love statue.
"We papered the statue in rainbow colors to represent LGBT," Meyer said. "We just had people stop by and take pictures to show their support for marriage equality."
Following the event, the two groups decided that since gay marriage was a bipartisan issue on the UPenn campus, they should reach out to other schools to find out their political parties' views, Meyer said.
"We believe among young Americans this is less of a politicized issue than it is an older generation's [issue]," Meyer said. "We just wanted to show that, and we thought a leadership statement would be a great way to do that."
According to Meyer, the Penn parties began by approaching groups at the other Ivy League schools and then decided to contact the U.S. News and World Report's list of top 50 schools, on which Tufts is currently number 28.
Although more Democratic group leaders have signed than those of Republican organizations, Meyer said that the bipartisan message on gay marriage is clear.
Gillogly said that the Tufts Republicans are proud to partake in the evolution of the gay marriage issue, but added that it is one of many issues the nation's political parties face.
"Every issue is a bipartisan issue," he said. "We are not Republicans
