Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Only Insincere Candidates Would Sign NOM's Anti-Gay Marriage Pledge, AFER Says

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) on Monday released a video calling the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) presidential pledge to work against marriage equality “crazy.”
Republican candidates who sign NOM's pledge promise to support a federal constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual unions, to “oppose and work to overturn any Supreme Court decision that illegitimately finds a constitutional 'right' to the redefinition of marriage,” and to investigate the harassment of marriage equality opponents by federal officials.

“There are a couple of reasons why NOM's pledge is nuts,” Matt Baume says in the two-and-a-half-minute video. “First, they want candidates to support a constitutional ban on marriage. That will never happen. George Bush called for an amendment back in 2004 and that went nowhere. Since then, public support for marriage equality has jumped from 35 percent to at least 55 percent. If they couldn't get any momentum behind an amendment then, they'll never get politicians to spend political capital on it now.”
Baume noted that presidents don't have the power to overrule Supreme Court decisions.
“NOM wants the president to only nominate judges who will uphold marriage bans, but at this point legal consensus so strongly supports marriage equality that supporting a marriage ban is a sign that a person isn't qualified to be a judge,” Baume said.
Baume added that a GOP candidate who signs the pledge either has “no intention of keeping their word or they know there's no chance they'll get elected.”
Most candidates seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination signed a similar NOM pledge.

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