Gay marriage foe Frank Schubert
believes gay couples can have loving relationships and care for
children.
Schubert has devoted much of the last
four years running campaigns opposed to extending marriage rights to
gay and lesbian couples.
He ran California's 2008 Proposition 8
campaign, which overruled a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing
marriage for gay men and women. He repeated that success in Maine
the following year and North Carolina in May.
Schubert is currently the chief
strategist of four ballot fights in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and
Washington state.
In a profile published Tuesday in The
New York Times, Schubert, who has a lesbian sister raising two
children with her partner in California, said he's hurt by
accusations he dislikes gay people.
“It's hurtful to know that many
people think I dislike gays and lesbians and wish them harm,” he
told the paper.
Schubert added that a win for
supporters could “open up a whole new front” by emboldening
supporters in other states.
The 56-year-old Schubert also said that
advancing the idea that “it is possible to respect the rights of
gays and lesbians without redefining marriage” is difficult.
“[B]ecause it sounds as if we're saying gay couples can't have
loving relationships or care for children, which is not the case,”
he said.