Indiana: Gay Republican quits GOP over "committee surfing" of anti-marriage equality bill

Earlier today I reported on the Indiana Speaker of the House's "highly unusual" tactic of moving the current anti-marriage equality bill to a new committee because it looked like it might not pass in it's initial committee.

In light of that move, Andrew Markle, a gay Republican running for the Indiana state House, has announced on Facebook that he is ending his campaign and quitting the Republican Party due to the "committee surfing" of the anti-gay bill:

It deeply saddens me to see the state that I have called home for the past 8 years plunge into a debate over a minority group's civil rights.

It is with a heavy heart but with a clear conscience that I announce the end of my run for Indiana State House of Representatives, District 99, as a Republican. With today's announcement by House Speaker Brian Bosma, that he is using extraordinary and unprecedented rules to change House Joint Resolution 3's committee assignment, I have no choice but to resign my candidacy as a Republican.

As an openly gay male and a conservative, I find it deplorable that the state would choose to take such extraordinary measures to disenfranchise me and my fellow LGBT brothers and sisters. In an era where my party declared that it was the party of "small government" and "less intrusion", it has been confirmed that it is not the party of small government or less intrusion.

I am not leaving the Republican Party; the Republican Party has left me.

(via Bilerico)