On Saturday, Republican delegates in North Carolina voted at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state's senior US senator, for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and gun violence policies. As Sen. Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, his record of supporting some key policies has raised concerns among some state Republicans that the senator has strayed from conservative values. Both the state and national GOP platforms oppose same-sex marriage. But Tillis, who had opposed it earlier in his political career, was among the early supporters of the law who lobbied his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote in favor of it. Several delegates in Greensboro criticized Tillis, who has held his seat in the Senate since 2015, for his work last year on the Respect For Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law. The North Carolina senator initially opposed Trump's plan to use military construction dollars to build a wall along the nation's southern border, but he eventually shifted his position. Several state legislators, including Sen. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County, criticized the decision, saying it's a bad idea to create more divisions within the party ahead of an election year when party unity will be paramount. #Queer Up Politics