Libertarian Party presidential
candidate Gary Johnson on Friday endorsed an effort to repeal Ohio's
constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual union.
Voters in 2004 overwhelmingly approved
the amendment. Freedom to Marry Ohio in May began collecting
signatures to put the state's ban up for a vote next year.
At a campaign stop in Toledo, vice
presidential nominee Judge Jim Gray urged voters to back the
campaign.
“Unlike Mitt Romney or President
Obama, Governor Johnson and I believe the right to marry who we
choose is a constitutionally protected right,” Gray is quoted as
saying in a statement released by Freedom
to Marry Ohio. “”People of different faiths and different
beliefs are free to follow those beliefs when it comes to embracing
or opposing same-sex marriage within those faiths and beliefs.
However, it should not be the purview of government to impose one set
of beliefs over another. And government absolutely should not
sanction discrimination against gay Americans who choose to marry.”
“Ohio’s Freedom to Marry amendment
is an important step toward marriage equality in a key state.
Governor Johnson and I are proud to lend our support, and urge the
good people of Ohio to put their state on the side of equality and
against government being in the business of deciding who can marry
whom.”
(Related: Gay
marriage could mean $165 million economic boost for Ohio.)