Matt Barber of the Christian
conservative group Liberty Counsel on Tuesday suggested that the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) protects children from contracting
HIV/AIDS.
DOMA is the 1996 law that bars federal
agencies and the military from recognizing the legal marriages of gay
and lesbian couples.
All
ten Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved
a bill that would repeal the law. Republicans on the panel
unanimously supported DOMA, saying it saves the government money by
denying federal benefits to married gay couples.
On his radio broadcast, Barber called
the move “reprehensible,” because repeal would put children at
risk.
“Children who are raised in a lesbian
or gay household are 8 times more likely to engage in the homosexual
lifestyle themselves,” Barber said. “And that's terrible when
you consider that the CDC has found that 1 out of 5 adolescent and
men engaged in the homosexual lifestyle are HIV-positive. Forty
percent of them don't even know it.” (The video is embedded in the
right panel of this page.)