Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, says he wrote the Republican National Committee’s marriage plank for the RNC platform. Perkins, head of the certified anti-gay hate group, told Buzzfeed, “You should read the entire plank on marriage, which I wrote. I feel very happy about it. I feel pretty optimistic about the outcome here.â€
The marriage plank includes language calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would permanently ban same-sex marriage throughout the nation, presumably forcibly divorcing currently married same-sex couples — a key element of the National Organization For Marriage’s (NOM)Â “marriage pledge” signed by presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and most other GOP presidential candidates. The marriage plank also attacks President Obama’s decision to not defend in court DOMA, the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which the President and Attorney General, along with several federal courts, including dozens of federal justices, have all found to be unconstitutional.
The entire RNC platform — crafted every four years ahead of the Republican National Committee’s presidential nominating convention, was edited by fraudulent historian David Barton, according to sources familiar with the event. Barton’s claim to fame is that he believes the Constitution comes directly from the Bible.
Buzzfeed, in an exclusive report, notes that “the platform also includes language about ‘respect and dignity,’ which a gay Republican group, the Log Cabin Republicans, cast as an olive branch.”
Calling out “an activist judiciary,” the draft document blasts “court-ordered redefinition of marriage” before taking on the Obama administration.
“We oppose the Administration’s open defiance of this principle [of separation of powers] — in its handling of immigration cases, in federal personnel benefits, in allowing a same-sex marriage at a military base, and in refusing to defend DOMA in the courts,” the draft states.
Finally, after praising the benefits of marriage, the draft documents state, “[W]e believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through laws governing marriage.”
In a separate report, Buzzfeed notes:
“The platform’s doubling down of writing discrimination into our Constitution cements them firmly in the past. With a majority of Americans supporting marriage equality, this harsh language will be seen as decidedly retrograde,” HRC spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz told BuzzFeed.
“The fact that the Republican platform is extolling the virtues of marriage is all the more reason why it is senseless that the Republican Party is excluding committed gay and lesbian couples from that institution.”
Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, agreed with that notion, saying, “Their lack of awareness of why marriage matters for gay couples as well as for non-gay couples is matched only by their failure to understand basic American civics, such as the role of the judiciary and the meaning of ‘equal protection under the law.'”
Of the party’s apparent position, Wolfson said, “It’s actually tragic to see a party that professes its beliefs in values such as freedom, limited government and personal responsibility taking such an extreme position in favor of denial, exclusion and the undermining of constitutional safeguards, not to mention attacking families seeking the commitment of marriage.”
Clearly, despite the bubbling cauldron of Congressman Todd Akin‘s rape imbroglio, the entire year of the GOP War On Women, and even a leaked memo by a top Republican pollster noting the party must adopt support for same-sex marriage or face extinction, the Republican National Committee and its top leadership have decided that it would be better to lose every major election, give up the House, the Senate, and the White House, rather than extend simple measures of equality to LGBT citizens.
Congratulations, Reince Priebus and the entire GOP.
Image via Twitter