Texas Governor Rick Perry has taken a
page from Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's playbook in retreating
from earlier remarks that he's fine with New York legalizing gay
marriage.
Perry made his remarks last week while
attending an event associated with the Republican Governors
Association's annual convention in Aspen, Colorado.
“Our friends in New York six weeks
ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of
the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their
business, and that's fine with me,” Perry said.
The governor went on to call himself an
“unapologetic social conservative” and affirmed his opposition to
marriage equality, but added that he also believes in the 10th
amendment.
The potential presidential candidate
faced criticism from social conservatives over his tepid endorsement.
“So Gov Perry, if a state wanted to
allow polygamy or if they chose to deny heterosexuals the right to
marry, would that be OK too?” presidential candidate Rick Santorum
messaged on Twitter with the hashtag #tcot, which stands for “top
conservatives on Twitter.”
“What Rick Perry is advocating here
is cultural surrender,” wrote
World Net Daily Editor Joseph Farah in an op-ed
withdrawing his support from a possible Perry candidacy.
A Perry spokesman responded to the
criticism by confirming that the governor supports a federal
constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.
Mark
Miner told the Austin American-Statesman that “Nothing
has changed with the governor's philosophy here,” citing Perry's
support for constitutional amendments – at the state and federal
level – defining marriage as a heterosexual union.
During a recent GOP debate, Bachmann
took a similar approach to the issue.
The position allows the candidates to
oppose gay marriage from a politically safe, distant ideological
position whose time has passed.