Mitt Romney is being called on to
distance himself from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM),
the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage.
In an op-ed published Saturday in the
Guardian,
GOP rival Fred Karger called on Romney to repudiate the group and its
pledge he signed promising to work against marriage equality.
Karger pointed to recent revelations
that the group plotted
a strategy to pit minorities against gay marriage supporters in
arguing that NOM is “unethical.”
“[W]e now have the proof that NOM is
an unethical and deceitful operation,” Karger wrote.
“Ron Paul and I remain the only two
active candidates who refused to sign NOM's marriage pledge,” he
added. “In the final two and a half months of this long and
hard-fought campaign for the Republican nomination for president,
let's work together toward equality for all Americans.”
NOM's 5-point marriage pledge asks
signers to support a federal constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage, defend the Defense of Marriage of Act (DOMA) in court,
appoint judges and an attorney general who will “respect the
original meaning of the Constitution,” appoint a presidential
commission to investigate the “harassment of traditional marriage
supporters,” and back legislation that would allow a ballot
question on the issue for voters of the District of Columbia.