In a fundraising email sent on Friday,
National Organization for Marriage (NOM) President Brian Brown
criticized presidential hopeful Mike Buttigieg's marriage as
illegitimate.
Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of
South Bend, Indiana, has in recent weeks criticized Vice President
Mike Pence's opposition to LGBT rights, including marriage equality.
One speech in particular seemed to hit
a nerve. After praising his marriage to Chasten – “And yes Mr.
Vice President, it has moved me closer to God” – Buttigieg,
speaking to Pence, added: “If you got a problem with who I am, your
problem is not with me – your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
In several interviews, Pence responded
that Buttigieg “should know better” than to criticize his
Christian faith.
(Related: Pete
Buttigieg: Mike Pence shouldn't use religion to justify harming LGBT
community.)
Brown said that Buttigieg had “slapped
all of us [in the face] who believe in the sanctity of marriage as
the union of a man and a woman.”
“Mr. Mayor, let me firstly say that
we don’t have a problem with ‘who you are;’ we have a problem
with what you believe and your insistence that your beliefs be
imposed on the rest of society,” Brown wrote. “Secondly, your
Creator did not make you gay. Supporters of marriage, like Vice
President Pence, are not out campaigning against gays and lesbians
for ‘who they are.’ Our cause is not condemning homosexuals, it’s
upholding marriage. NOM has always maintained that gays and lesbians
are free to live their lifestyle as they choose, but they are not
free to redefine marriage for all of society.”
Writing at Right Wing Watch,
Peter
Montgomery called Brown's assertion “laughable.”
Brown has “supported laws that impose
long criminal sentences for consensual homosexual conduct” and has
“stood side by side with – and lavished praise on –
authoritarian leaders who restrict the lives and freedom of LGBT
people,” Montgomery wrote.
Brown also characterized Buttigieg's
marriage as illegitimate – “That relationship is not marriage,
and no judicial decree or political act can ever make it so.” –
and vowed to overturn the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell
that struck down state laws and constitutional amendments that
restrict marriage to heterosexual unions.
Buttigieg is expected to formally
announce his presidential campaign on Sunday.