A Christian conservative group is pushing for a referendum in Maine that would repeal the state's 11-year-old law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Equal Rights, not Special Rights is helmed by Mike Heath, who as head of the Maine Family Policy Council worked to repeal Maine's gay-inclusive marriage law. (Ultimately, the law was repealed. But in 2012, Maine became the first state to approve such a law at the ballot box.)

With Equal Rights, not Specials Rights, Heath and his supporters are pushing for a referendum that would remove “sexual orientation” as a protected class in the Maine Human Rights Act.

The group told CBS affiliate WGME, that they were tired of being forced to accept homosexuality.

“There is conduct that ought to be punished,” Heath told the outlet. “And Christianity teaches, has always taught and still does teach, that sodomy is such a behavior.”

The group said that it wants to restore America to its former greatness by excluding gay and lesbian couples from marriage and outlawing gay sex.

Writing at his blog in 2008, Heath blamed the nation's financial crisis on gay unions, adding that prohibiting gay couples from being recognized in law would make God “crack a smile.”