Gay Rights

Tolerance Wave? Multiple Polls In Red and Purple States Show Support For Gay Rights

Kyle Leighton | August 23, 2011, 6:25AM

Pro Same-Sex Marriage Parade, Maplewood, NJ

As gay rights advocates have made gains over the last few years, the public seems to be moving in the same direction. Friday saw the release of a new poll sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Citizens for Equal Protection showing citizens deep in the middle of conservative America - in Nebraska - are solidly for non-discrimination protections for members of the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, even if the current state laws are not. 73 percent of Nebraskans surveyed support protecting LGBT people from discrimination in employment, protections which currently don't exist there.

The survey comes as Public Policy Polling (D) has been polling a diversity of states on the question of gay marriage and civil unions. Those polls have shown that some version of recognition for same sex couples is popular: even in the most Republican state in the union, Utah, 60 percent supported either gay marriage or civil unions, a trend also reflected in a separate HRC polling of the state.

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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann: I Don't 'Judge' Gays, Everyone Has 'Dignity' And 'Honor'

David Taintor | August 14, 2011, 2:35PM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Fresh off her win at the Iowa straw poll, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Sunday launched a media blitz on the morning talk shows.

For the most part, Bachmann stayed on message, calling for the repeal of "Obamacare" and reigning in government spending. But an interesting moment came when Meet The Press host David Gregory challenged Bachmann's position on homosexuality.

It's no secret Bachmann isn't the biggest fan of gays. But when Gregory played a clip of Bachmann saying homosexuality leads to "personal enslavement" and "bondage," she responded simply by saying "I am running for the presidency of the United States."

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Gay Marriage

Michele Bachmann Attends Anti-Gay Sermon in Iowa

August 8, 2011, 11:49AM

Michele Bachmann spoke at a church service in Iowa on Sunday that featured a separate sermon about "immoral" gays as well as a video presentation promoting gay conversion therapy.

"We inherently know that homosexual behavior is immoral and unnatural," Pastor Jeff Mullen told churchgoers during a half-hour presentation, according to NBC. Afterward he played a recorded testimonial from a man who claimed to have been cured of his homosexual urges through the power of prayer and is now married with an expecting wife "I am so happy God has given me natural affection for a woman," he says in the video.

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Iowa caucus

Santorum Denounces 'Super-Right' Of 'Sexual Liberty,' And The 'Pursuit Of Pleasure'

Eric Kleefeld | August 5, 2011, 2:27PM

Rick Santorum at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's Spring Kickoff Event

Rick Santorum is continuing his staunch opposition to gay rights -- warning that courts have created a "super-right" to sex, which overrides the constitutional right of religious freedom.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register's editorial board, Santorum claimed that same-sex marriage was a threat to religious liberty, alleging for example that government could threaten the licenses of marriage counselors who don't treat gay couples.

"Religious liberty is now trumped because we have now created a super-right," said Santorum. "We have a right [in] the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that's above a right that's actually in the Constitution, and that's of sexual liberty. And I think that's a wrong, that's a destructive element."

Also, the paper reports: "Santorum says if 'pursuit of happiness' means 'pursuit of pleasure,' we won't be a country very long."