RNC Doubles Down On Gay Marriage Stance Amid Conservative Pressure

April 12, 2013 -- With support for gay marriage at a record high among Americans, Republican party leaders from around the country doubled down to oppose it at the Republican National Committee's spring meeting in Los Angeles Friday.

Members of the committee voted unanimously to reaffirm the language in the GOP platform defining marriage "as the union of one man and one woman." The resolution went further, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to "uphold the sanctity of marriage in its rulings on Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act."

An ABC News-Washington Post poll conducted in March found that 58 percent of Americans said it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to marry. And support for gay marriage has been increasing among Republicans: In the latest poll, 34 percent of them said they supported it -- an 18 point uptick from 2004.

Earlier today, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus joked in his remarks to the group that Lady Gaga won't be "chairing our platform committee." Gaga is a noted gay rights activist.

"It's absolutely not true that I asked Lady Gaga to perform at the Reagan Library dinner tonight," according to a text of Priebus's prepared comments, a reference to reports that a separate GOP group offered to pay the entertainer to perform at an event during last summer's Republican National Convention. "For the record, she also won't be chairing our platform committee or serving as our new director of surrogate operations."

Republican leaders have been meeting this week at a hotel less than a mile from West Hollywood, Calif., a city with a large gay and lesbian population.

The vote may appease social conservatives who have been threatening to withhold their support from the GOP over rifts about where the party is headed on social issues.