Republican presidential candidates Ted
Cruz, Ben Carson and Bobby Jindal have joined Rick Santorum in
signing a promise to oppose marriage equality as president.
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) is asking all presidential candidates to not only promise to
support a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual
unions but also to “prevent the promotion of a redefined version of
marriage in public schools and other government entities” and
direct the Department of Justice to investigate “cases of Americans
who have been harassed or threatened for exercising key civil rights
to organize, to speak, to donate or to vote for marriage.”
NOM President Brian Brown said in a
statement that the pledge was necessary for a candidate to win his
group's endorsement.
“NOM has invited every candidate for
president to sign our pledge, and we encourage those who have not yet
signed to do so as soon as possible,” Brown said.
“We will not support a candidate for
president who has not pledged to the American people to take specific
actions in support of restoring marriage to our law and protecting
people from government discrimination over their beliefs that
marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” he added.
The announcement came a day after NOM
filed a report identifying the sources of the $2 million it gave to
the 2009 campaign to repeal a gay marriage law approved by Maine
lawmakers.
(Related: NOM
reveals donors who helped repeal Maine's gay marriage law.)