Rick Perry has reiterated his support
for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and his
opposition to gay and lesbian couples adopting children.
The 61-year-old Perry made his remarks
Saturday at the Thanksgiving Family Forum in Des Moines, Iowa. Also
attending the event were Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain,
Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt
Romney was invited but did not attend. Also not in attendance was
former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who has not placed an emphasis on
Iowa.
The candidates gathered around a dinner
table festooned with pumpkins and fall leaves as moderator Frank
Luntz kept the conversation flowing for two hours as nearly 3,000
religious and socially conservative activists listened in.
When Tom Minnery, the head of
CitizenLink, the political arm of the Christian conservative group
Focus on the Family, asked Perry what he would do as president to
help faith-based adoption agencies “which are being run out of
business because they will only place children in homes headed by
mothers and fathers and they will not place those children in homes
headed by same-sex couples,” Perry answered that passing the
federal marriage amendment would address the issue.
“But until that does pass, as in the
state of Texas, a gay couple cannot adopt a child in the state of
Texas, so the states have the ability again until there is a federal
marriage amendment that clearly states that marriage is between one
man and one woman and in that as well you cannot adopt a child unless
it is one man and one woman,” Perry answered. (The video is
located in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
(Related: At
DOMA hearing, Al Franken disputes Tom Minnery's claims against gay
families.)