The Republican Party continues to struggle with its intentions moving forward in regards to LGBT equality. In its autopsy report of the 2012 elections — its “Growth & Opportunity Project” — the gay community was the one group that the Party was not actually interested in reaching out to. Instead, the plan was to convince young people to support conservative principles even if they support LGBT rights. Since then, GOP chairman Reince Priebus has attempted to model this by citing his own marriage as an example for building bridges and suggesting Mike Huckabee, a very vocal opponent of equality, be an ambassador on gay issues.

This week, both Priebus and potential presidential prospect Jeb Bush have both been a bit more candid about their intentions to simply sugarcoat their opposition to equality so it doesn’t sound so anti-gay. Bush told Newsmax that a different tone that expresses opposition to same-sex marriage “in a civil way” that is “not judgmental” would help keep conservatives united:

BUSH: I know for a fact that as it relates to gay marriage and other social issues there is growing divergence of opinion on this. When we talk about it, we ought to talk about it with a different tone — and we ought to talk about it recognizing that there is more than one point of view, and we should talk about it in a way that is not judgmental. If we can get to that point where people who have diverging points of view and express them in a civil way, the conservative coalition can stay intact.

Priebus, in turn, told USA Today that opposition to equality can be presented with “grace and respect”:

“We do have a platform, and we adhere to that platform,” Priebus said in an interview Monday on USA TODAY’s Capital Download video series. “But it doesn’t mean that we divide and subtract people from our party” who support the right of gay men and lesbians to marry.

“I don’t believe we need to act like Old Testament heretics,” he said, saying Republicans “have to strike a balance between principle and grace and respect.”

What the Republican Party cannot seem to accept is that no polishing of this message amounts to respect, grace, or civil discourse. Inequality is inequality, and no changes in tone can change that the GOP platform specifically calls for one group of people to be treated as second-class citizens.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has been pressing the GOP to be more accepting of gay people, arguing that harsh rhetoric alienates young voters and jeopardizes the party’s future. But on Friday, Priebus took a big step backward, telling the National Review that the party should take its cues about social issues from former Arkansas governor and Baptist Minister Mike Huckabee:

Priebus cited former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas as an example of someone who could be “a model for a lot of people in our party” in terms of discussing issues like marriage and abortion. “I always tell people: Listen to Governor Mike Huckabee,” he said. “I don’t know anyone that talks about them any better.”

Huckabee — a hard line opponent of marriage equality and abortion rights — uses a warmer and more congenial tone about gay people and women than firebrands like Rick Santorum or Rick Perry, urging conservatives to respect gays and women, even as they organize to deny them legal protections and benefits or access to a full spectrum of health care services. But as the public grows more accepting of same-sex relationships and Roe v Wade, Huckabee’s positions and rhetoric about these issues is out of sync with the nation as a whole and will not serve the party well as it seeks to grow and appeal to more voters:

On Marriage Equality:

– Being gay is a public health risk. “I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk”

– Being gay is a sin. “Well I believe it would be — just like lying is sinful and stealing is sinful. There are a lot of things that are sinful. It doesn’t mean that a person is a horrible person. It means that they engage in behavior that is outside the norms of those boundaries of our traditional view of what’s right and what’s wrong. So, I think that anybody who has, maybe a traditional worldview of sexuality would classify that as an unusual behavior that is not traditional and that would be outside those bounds.”

– Marriage equality will lead to polygamy. “If we change the definition to a man or a man and a woman and a woman, why can’t we accommodate a man and two women or a woman and three men.”

On Abortion:

– Supported Todd Akin. “The Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren’t rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield…Is this what the party really thinks of principled pro-life advocates?”

– Would ban abortion even in cases of incest or rape. In 2011, Huckabee traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to raise money for the Yes on 26 campaign, “in support of the Mississippi Personhood amendment, a referendum on the November ballot that would ban abortions in the state” even in cases of rape or incest.

– Compares abortion to slavery. “What are we saying to the generation coming after us when we tell them that it is perfectly OK for one person to own another human being?” Huckabee said. “I thought we dealt with that 150 years ago when the issue of slavery was finally settled in this country, and we decided that it no longer was a political issue, it wasn’t an issue of geography, it was an issue of morality. That it was either right or it was immoral that one person could own another human being and have full control even to the point of life and death over that other human being.”

Earlier this week, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released an investigation into the party’s 2012 electoral defeat. The so-called “Growth & Opportunity Project” urges the GOP to expand its outreach to minority groups, including people in the LGBT community. The report notes that while Republicans don’t have to embrace marriage equality or nondiscrimination protections for gay and lesbian people, “we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view.”

But on Friday, while trying to explain why gay people should vote for the GOP to MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Priebus used a stunningly tone deaf analogy, saying that he would tell gay people about his own “great marriage” to his wife, with whom he sometimes disagrees.

Responding to a question from The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, the chairman downplayed the disagreements Republicans have with the LGBT community on “one or two things” and stressed that all voters can embrace the party’s strong message on the economy, education, and the military. Then, as if unaware of the GOP’s efforts to prevent gay and lesbian people from marrying, Priebus likened the tiny differences between Republicans and the LGBT community to his strong marital relationship:

STEIN: On the issue of inconclusivity. What would you tell an independent minded gay man who believes the right to marry is a civil right? What would you tell him about why he should vote Republican?

PRIEBUS: I would tell him, look, we might not agree on every single issue but, for the most part, if you look at where we are at in our economy and look at where we are with educational choice and our military positions and positions on a strong defense in our party for the most part, we agree on almost everything and doesn’t make someone a bad Republican. It means we are good Republicans and disagree on one or two things. My God, I don’t agree with my wife on 100 percent of the issues but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a great marriage.

Watch it:

Priebus didn’t mention the the GOP’s decision to spend millions of dollars defending the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), opposition to federal nondiscrimination laws to protect the LGBT community or marriage equality and observed that the party’s values are “entirely consistent” with those of most gay and lesbian people. “I think it’s a human position to take and I think it’s a decent position to take,” he added.

The Republican National Committee’s investigation into its 2012 electoral defeat, dubbed their “Growth & Opportunity Project,” makes clear that it the party wants to expand its outreach to minority groups including Hispanics, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, African Americans, Women, and Youth. But rather than reaching out to LGBT people, the report suggests, the party need only reach out to the straight young voters who believe in LGBT equality.

In a section called “Demographic Partners,” the report — commissioned by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus — notes that the party’s presidential nominee lost among voters under age 30 by 5 million votes in 2012. But, with a “youthful” 41-year old RNC Chairman and likely 2016 hopefuls who are younger than Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it suggests that GOP can change its current image as “old and detached from pop culture.”

Since young voters generally disagree with the GOP platform on gay rights and see this and other social issues as the “civil rights issues of our time,” the report recommends that the GOP be “welcoming and inclusive.” But rather than welcoming LGBT people, it endorses inclusion of young conservative people who disagree with the party’s anti-LGBT beliefs but might have conservative views on other issues:

For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view. Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays — and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.

If our Party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out. The Party should be proud of its conservative principles, but just because someone disagrees with us on 20 percent of the issues, that does not mean we cannot come together on the rest of the issues where we do agree.

It goes on to say: “On messaging, we must change our tone — especially on certain social issues that are turning off young voters.” In other words, the party will continue to oppose equal rights but will do so with a less strident approach.

Rather than work to appeal to the five percent of American voters who identify as LGBT — and preferred the Democratic nominee by a more than three-to-one margin — the GOP new plan is to stand by its exclusion, but try to sound inclusive when doing so.