Marco Rubio Doubles Down With New Plan To Take Away LGBT Rights

GOP Presidential Candidate Recruits Well-Known Anti-Gay Activists To Reverse The Supreme Court’s Marriage Equality Ruling

In his continued efforts to strip the LGBT community of their rights, Marco Rubio just doubled down on his presidential campaign promise to reverse last year’s marriage equality ruling. A press release issued on Saturday ahead of the GOP debate announced that Rubio’s campaign has formed a Marriage & Family Advisory Board devoted to “rebuilding a vibrant culture of marriage and family.” That’s code for taking away equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Rubio echoed that goal at the GOP debate Saturday:

In announcing Rubio’s new Marriage & Family Advisory Board, Eric Teetsel, the Rubio campaign’s Director of Faith Outreach, chose to attack same-sex marriage.

“The Supreme Court’s decisions in Windsor and Obergefell are only the most recent example of our failure as a society to understand what marriage is and why it matters,” Teetsel, former head of the head of the Manhattan Declaration, said.

“For decades, we have taken for granted the unique and necessary contributions of moms and dads in the lives of their children, from lax divorce laws to marriage penalties in the tax code and the failure of husbands and wives to live up to their marriage vows. Marco understands the many causes of family breakdown and the consequences. He has pulled together a board of experts who understand the same and have devoted themselves to rebuilding a vibrant culture of marriage and family.”

Rubio has recruited some of the most anti-gay activists in the public sphere. The Marriage & Family Advisory Board includes Ken Blackwell, Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council, an organization that was declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The board also includes Ryan T. Anderson, a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Anderson is known for advocating for harmful conversion therapy and for comparing same-sex attraction to pedophilia and alcoholism.

Rubio has never been shy about his disdain for the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, even though he claims he doesn’t discriminate against the LGBT community. “It’s not about discrimination,” he said two months ago in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet The Press. “It is about the definition of a very specific, traditional, and age-old institution.”

RELATED: Marco Rubio: Same-Sex Marriage Law Not ‘Settled’ (Video)

As for one of his strategies to reverse the marriage equality ruling, Rubio said  he plans to appoint anti-gay Supreme Court justices. “I don’t believe any case law is settled law,” Rubio said. “Any future Supreme Court can change it. And ultimately, I will appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as originally constructed.”

On Twitter, some notables weighed in:

Jim Obergefell, whose case won marriage at the Supreme Court:

Lambda Legal attorney Eric Lesh:

Former GOProud head Jimmy LaSalvia:

  

EARLIER:

Watch: Rubio Tells Man And His Husband To Change The Law If They Disagree With His Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

Marco Rubio: ‘I Always Allow My Faith To Influence Everything I Do’ (Video)

Marco Rubio: ‘I’ve Been Called A Bigot’ (Video)

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Joe.My.God.