Pledge to void same-sex marriage signed by Republican candidates

By Sara Ritsch
Staff Writer

Four Republican candidates have pledged to void all gay marriages, effectively attempting to destroy the rights given to same-sex couples by the US Supreme Court last June.

According to Pink News, last week The National Organization for Marriage, which is funded by Catholic donors, requested that the candidates sign this pledge. The group wants to permit organizations and individuals to discriminate against same-sex couples and to ban schools from teaching about LGBT couples and marriage.

The four Republican candidates consist of Rick Santorum, Senator Ted Cruz, LA Governor Bobby Jindal (who has since dropped out of the race) and neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who have all explicitly expressed their views against the gay community in the past.

Those who are in favor of this pledge claim that the purpose is to support religious freedom.

According to Gallup, however, the nation-wide increase in support of gay marriage is staggering. “In 1996 nearly 7 in 10 Americans opposed same-sex marriage, but in May 2015, 60% of Americans said they supported such unions.”

“They [the candidates] can’t do that,” said Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Freedom Oklahoma, on The Supreme Court having the say-so over the Executive Branch.

On Friday, June 26 of this last year, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that states cannot ban same-sex marriage.

“First of all, The National Organization for Marriage is irrelevant and it has been for years. This is sour grapes from an organization that should have shut its doors long ago.

“Nobody wants anything to do with that organization,” he said. “It’s a hate group. And this is a tactic to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the Evangelical base [of constituents], and it’s tactics like these that are making it hard for them to be taken seriously as candidates.”

Dragging social issues to the forefront of a Republican race to the primaries lacks tact in itself—especially with 60% of the public supporting same-sex marriage.

The Gayly - 11/19/2015 @ 1:26 p.m. CST