The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, has
launched a campaign attacking President Barack Obama for his decision
to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court.
DOMA bans federal recognition of the
legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples, barring gay couples from
access to thousands of federal benefits.
In a one-minute-twenty-three-second
video released Monday, NOM accuses the president of turning his back
on marriage.
“DOMA was passed by an overwhelming
bipartisan majority and signed into law by President Clinton, but
that didn't seem to matter to Obama,” the male announcer says in
the ad. “Instead of doing his job to uphold the law he's dumping
it behind our backs.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of
this page.)
Not mentioned in the ad are the facts
that Clinton
has since said he was “wrong” to sign the law, the bill's
author, former Georgia Representative Bob Barr, a Republican turned
Libertarian, has called for the law's repeal, and a number of
Democratic lawmakers who voted for DOMA have since had a change of
heart. The
most recent being Washington Senator Patty Murray.
At
NOM's website DefendDOMA.com, the group urges supporters to
oppose New York Representative Jerrold Nadler's bill that would
repeal DOMA and support Missouri
Representative Vicky Hartzler's resolution that would force the
administration to defend the law.