Thomas Peters, communications director
for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has claimed that a
recent Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) has energized gay marriage foes.
Peters appeared opposite Evan Wolfson,
founder of Freedom to Marry, on NPR's The
Diane Rehm Show.
The high court's ruling removed a
provision of DOMA that prohibited federal agencies from recognizing
the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
“A lot of our supporters, frankly,
expected to lose everything at the Supreme Court,” Peters said.
“We're a movement of social conservatives who care about marriage,
life and family, and religious freedom as well. And a lot of our
people have a very distinct memory of what happened with the court
when they decided Roe v. Wade. And so, a lot of our
supporters were surprised the Supreme Court did not do what gay
marriage advocates promised they would do, which is to strike down
laws protecting marriage across the board. And so, we actually have
a lot of people coming off the sidelines, rejoining these fights,
because they find these state efforts fruitful now in a way that they
were up for grabs.”
Wolfson disagreed: “The opposition
that Mr. Peters represents is isolated and dwindling and a real
minority. And far from people coming off the sidelines to attack gay
people, more and more Americans are joining with where the
legislatures and the courts and the president and governors and
attorney generals have all been moving, which is to end this
discrimination.”