Florida Agenda

FORT PAYNE, AL — Alabama’s once-and-(he hopes)-future Chief Justice says that the “ultimate destruction” of America will be the end result of legalizing gay marriage. Speaking at a Tea Party rally on Saturday in Fort Payne, Republican nominee for chief justice Roy Moore said that marriage equality attacks the country’s foundation.

Moore’s opponent, Circuit Judge Robert Vance, a Democrat, says that same-sex marriage isn’t an issue in Alabama, because the state has a constitutional amendment that prohibits such unions.

Moore, 65, became Alabama’s chief justice in 2001. In 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Moore from his post after he refused the order of a federal judge to take down a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.

In 2006, Moore sought the Republican primary nomination for Governor of Alabama, but lost nearly two-to-one to incumbent Gov. Bob Riley. In the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, Moore received only 19 percent of the vote, placing fourth.

P H I L A D E L P H I A , PENNSYLVANIA – On Saturday, thousands of conservative Christians assembled at Independence Mall to pray for America’s future. Among the speakers in attendance for “The America for Jesus 2012” prayer rally, which was held in advance of the November 6 presidential election, were broadcaster and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson and Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins.

Speakers condemned gay marriage, abortion rights, and enjoined the assembly to fight against the influence of the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

“I don’t care what the [American Civil Liberties Union] says or any atheists say. This nation belongs to Jesus, and we’re here today to reclaim his sovereignty,” said Robertson, 82, founder of the Christian Coalition, and a 1988 GOP primary candidate for president.

“We pray that his eyes will be open to the truth,” said Perkins, who asked the crowd to pray for President Obama.

Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, warned the assembly that President Barack Obama “seems to be moving toward some form of European socialism.” Strang recently wrote that America is threatened by a “radical homosexual agenda.”

Cindy Jacobs, a self-styled prophet, cited God’s displeasure over the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) as the cause for mysterious bird deaths last year in Arkansas. Early this year, Jacobs, founder of the Generals International ministry, predicted that Obama’s support for LGBT rights will lead to freak atmospheric conditions.

She told disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker this year “that God had seen decisions made from our White House that were antibiblical, and that we were going to come into the season of the greatest weather patterns and disasters that we had seen, there were going to be floods and fires and more.”

The organizers held the rally outside of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the sight of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They plan another prayer rally in Washington, D.C. on October 20—two weeks before the presidential election.

ST PAUL, MINNESOTA – Jesse Ventura, the former professional wrestler, actor, and Governor of Minnesota, has added his voice to the campaign against a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define marriage in the North Star State as the union between one man and one woman.

“The constitution should not be used to oppress people,” Ventura said. “The constitution is used to protect people. Love is by far bigger than government can ever be,” he added. In a video posted last week on YouTube by Minnesotans United for All Families, Ventura and Terry, his wife of 37 years, declared their support for marriage equality, and urged Minnesotans to vote “no” in the November referendum, which poses the question, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage in Minnesota?”

“Government should not be telling people who to fall in love with,” said Ventura, who served as governor from 1999 to 2003. “We’re supposed to be the home of the brave, land of the free.”

Noting the non-partisan nature of marriage equality, Ventura, 61, said, “This is not a Democrat issue, this is not a Republican issue,” and added, “It affects each and every one of us regardless of whatever our political persuasion is.”

A recent survey by Public Policy Polling shows the referendum to be a statistical dead heat, with 48 percent of Minnesota voters supporting the same-sex marriage ban, and 47 percent opposing it.

By JOE HARRIS

The ink on the Republican National Committee’s 2012 Party Platform wasn’t even dry (at least on the part that reads “we 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”) when the party mandarins took the RNC Old-Timey Religious Revival show on the road, for a stop at this year’s Values Voters Summit, an event held by the family (although not “family”)- friendly Family Research Council (FRC), in Washington, D.C. FRC President Tony Perkins used the right’s boilerplate rallying cries, with calls to “limit government,” “reduce spending,” “champion traditional values,” and “protect America,” and then invited the usual suspects to declaim the gay rights agenda and the many ways it threatens those sacred bovines.

An estimated 2,500 attendees to the three-day event egged-on speakers, including Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, who criticized President Obama’s anti-family (read: pro-gay) policies, and lionized traditional values, among the most popular of which proved to be prohibiting marriage rights for gay couples.

It was Ryan who packed the most “star power” (of the Hollywood variety that is, ironically, so outwardly loathed by his biggest fans), reassuring the assembled that, “We can be confident in the rightness of our cause, and also in the integrity and readiness of the man who leads it,” referring to running mate Mitt Romney. “He is a solid and trustworthy, faithful and honorable man. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best.”

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) spoke to the assembly about the many benefits that marriage provides to families and the economy alike (just as long as, we suppose, one is speaking of “Adam and Eve”). Said Cantor: “Marriage—more than any government program ever has or ever will—has lifted up people out of poverty, even those who felt there was no hope. Marriage has proven to be that formula which has been more successful at allowing for that pursuit of happiness.”

So far, so good. “And that is why we stand tall and stand proud for traditional marriage,” Cantor concluded. Uh-oh: Sorry, Adam and Steve. (President Obama announced last year that the Justice Department would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] in court. Cantor, you may recall, was part of the House GOP leadership that established the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to take up the slack, a move that was widely seen as a stab in the back to gay Republicans.)

Although the Man-Who-Would- Be-President did not make a live appearance, he spoke via recorded video, telling the assembled that a Romney Presidency “will defend marriage, not try to redefine it.”

DAVENPORT, IOWA – During an interview last week with a local television station, Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, declined several times to answer questions about marriage equality, or employer-provided contraception.

The candidate’s wife was interviewed by KWQC-TV anchor David Nelson, who asked her, “Here in Iowa, as you know, same-sex marriage is legal. Do you believe a lesbian mother should be allowed to marry her partner?” Replied Romney: “You know, I’m not going to talk about the specific issues.”

When she was asked whether employers should be required to provide health insurance that covers birth control, Romney declined to respond. “You know, again, I’m going to talk to you about the economy and about job creation, and about how my husband is the right person for the right time.

This is going to be an election that is very important for women, and we are going to make sure that their economic prosperity is more certain under a President Romney.”

Her husband, Mitt Romney, publicly opposes gay marriage and civil unions, and supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Romney has also attacked the Obama administration for requiring most religiously affiliated employers to provide coverage for contraception in their employees’ health coverage.

By JOE HARRIS

In November, voters in four states will be asked to make permanent— more or less—their jurisdictions’ treatment of marriage equality (or reasonable facsimiles thereof). Ballot initiatives in Maryland and Washington will determine whether marriage equality laws signed this year will stay on the books. In Maine, voters will decide once and for all, they presume, whether to allow gay marriage back into the Pine Tree State (where it was already signed into law—and overturned at the ballot box—in 2009). And in Minnesota, a constitutional amendment would enshrine marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The Maine Event

AUGUSTA, MAINE – In 2009, state lawmakers enacted marriage equality, but it was overturned in the voting booth. Supporters of ballot Question 1 want to reinstate same-sex marriage. Both they and their opponents criticized the wording of the ballot question (“Do you want to allow same-sex couples to marry?”) as being too simplistic. Although Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, has been silent about his position on the issue, in May he criticized the teachers’ union for endorsing it, and later vetoed the union’s pay bill. Polls suggest that most voters (58 percent) support the marriage equality referendum.

Freedom to Marry in the Free State?

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND – Supporters hope to pass an initiative repealing the state’s Civil Marriage Protection Act, which was enacted earlier this year in support of marriage equality. Survey data shows strong support for same-sex marriage in Maryland.

The Veep, the General, and the Gays

ST PAUL, MINNESOTA – Although gay marriage isn’t legal there, Republican lawmakers and conservative activists support a constitutional amendment to prohibit it from ever rearing its head in the North Star State. The ballot measure asks, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?” (Republicans want you to answer, “Yes.”)

The question’s opponents include former Vice President Walter Mondale (D-MN), Fortune 500 corporation (and Minnesota-based) General Mills, Thomson Reuters, Target, and U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).

Ever-Pink in the Evergreen State?

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON- The state’s Referendum 74 would repeal the marriage equality law signed in February by Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat. The referendum question asks voters to approve or reject the law, which “allows same-sex couples to marry, applies marriage laws without regard to gender, and specifies that laws using gender specific terms like husband and wife include same-sex spouses.”

The law also says that “After 2014, existing domestic partnerships are converted to marriages, except for seniors. It preserves the right of clergy or religious organizations to refuse to perform or recognize any marriage or accommodate wedding ceremonies. The bill does not affect licensing of religious organizations providing adoption, foster-care, or child placement.”

Major supporters of Washington state marriage equality include Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Starbucks.

TAMPA — A strongly-worded platform approved last week by the Republican National Convention (RNC) would ban federal recognition of marriage equality through a constitutional amendment, along with outlawing all abortions and changing the nature of delivery of Medicare benefits. With a warning that the “American Dream is at risk,” the platform opens with a pledge that a Republican Party in power will “begin anew, with profound changes in the way government operates; the way it budgets, taxes and regulates.”

“This ambitious blueprint projects a sea change in the way that government works,” said Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Virginia), chairman of the RNC platform committee. “It offers a solution for workers without jobs, families without savings, and neighborhoods without hope.”

In spite of the efforts of gay delegates, including Log Cabin Republicans, and libertarian-leaning members (Ron Paul supporters among them), the RNC platform champions the rights of states and the federal government not to recognize gay marriage, and calls for a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a prominent Hispanic Democrat, called parts of the platform “draconian” and “extreme,” and said of Romney, “What you have seen from him is that he does one thing, he says another.”

TAMPA – The executive producer and creator of ABC’s hit sitcom “Modern Family” fired off an acerbic tweet about gay marriage last week to Ann Romney, after the wife of the Republican presidential nominee said that the program about a non-traditional family is her favorite TV show.

During an interview before her speech last week at the Republican National Convention, Romney said that the show, which features a gay couple raising an adopted child, is her favorite on TV. Tweeted Steve Levitan, the show’s creator: “Thrilled Ann Romney says ModFam is her favorite show.

We’ll offer her the role of officiant at Mitch & Cam’s wedding. As soon as it’s legal.”

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Democratic Party officials announced on Saturday their endorsement of marriage equality, and called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The Platform Committee for the Democratic National Convention, which gathers next month in North Carolina, met last week in Detroit, and approved the work of a separate group that drafted the platform two weeks ago, which included support for a “plank” that endorses same-sex marriage. That move echoes President Obama’s May announcement in support of marriage equality for all Americans.

The platform, a broad statement of the Democrats’ priorities on defense, the economy, and social issues, affirms the party’s “movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples.” Foretelling opposition from religious conservatives, the platform adds, “We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.”

In addition, the language calls for the repeal of DOMA, the 1996 law that was signed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Five federal courts have ruled that DOMA is unconstitutional.

Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey and co-chairman of the platform committee, acknowledged the “profound indignities” of DOMA’s provisions, as well as the divisiveness of the issue. “At the end of the day, it’ll maybe repel some and attract others to be more engaged,” Booker said.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Even as company executives distance themselves from recent remarks by its president concerning same-sex marriage, Chick-fil-A finds itself deeper-than-ever in the fryer with LGBT rights activists, and those who oppose the fast food chain’s opposition to gay rights. U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) added her voice to a chorus that already includes Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, in opposing the chain’s political support for traditional marriage. “For the record, I love KFC,” Pelosi tweeted last week.

Last month, Menino vowed to block the chain from opening a store in Bean Town, and the mayor of Pelosi’s home town of San Francisco, made similar comments.

The brouhaha began on July 16, when company CEO Dan Cathy was asked in an interview with Baptist Press to state his position on gay marriage. “We are very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy, 59, said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives,” adding, “We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families.”

Through the non-profit WinShape Foundation, founded in 1984, Cathy and his father, Truett, the 91-year-old founder of Chick-fil-A, have donated millions of dollars to various Christian organizations and causes, including those dedicated to preserving traditional, straight marriage.

The Cathy family and Chickfil- A were joined by their own political choir, including former GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who praised the Cathy family. Last Wednesday, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum added his own support for the chain. “With two of my boys, enjoying chick-in-strips and an awesome peach shake at Chickfil- A. See you here next Wednesday!” he tweeted. On Friday, former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin tweeted a picture of her and husband Todd giving a thumbs-up in one of the chain’s franchise locations.