The Family Research Council (FRC) and
the Minnesota Family Council will begin a new push next week to ban
gay marriage in Minnesota, the
Minnesota Independent reported.
The groups' Minnesota Family and
Marriage Summit will focus on getting an amendment that defines
marriage as a heterosexual union on the ballot in 2012.
“Experts … will discuss the latest
state legislative trends on marriage and then family that you need to
know,” a
flier for the summit reads. “Don't miss this opportunity to
get informed so that you can make a difference right where you live!”
FRC senior researcher Peter Sprigg will
helm a course titled “What's the harm in same-sex marriage?”
Sprigg's comments on MSNBC's Hardball
were cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center as good enough to put
the FRC on its list of known hate groups.
In February 2010, Sprigg
told host Chris Matthews that “gay behavior” should be
criminalized.
In a later interview, FRC President
Tony Perkins explained that Sprigg was merely making the point “that
in 2003 we were opposed to the overturning of the sodomy laws in the
Lawrence vs. Texas case.” The Supreme Court overturned
state sodomy laws in Lawrence vs. Texas.
“We have not been, we are not, and we
are not going to be working to re-criminalize homosexual behavior,”
Perkins added.
The Republican wave that hit much of
the nation on November 2 swamped Minnesota, dashing the hopes of gay
marriage backers who had high hopes of making Minnesota the next
state to legalize the institution, and increasing the likelihood that
lawmakers will act on banning gay marriage.