New Jersey Representative Chris Smith
has conceded that young people are increasingly supporting gay
marriage, and suggested Hollywood and the Obama administration are to
blame for the change.
Smith, an opponent of gay rights and
abortion rights, made his comments in
a National Catholic Register interview titled Defender
of Life, Liberty and Marriage.
When asked about the subject, Smith
answered: “There's something of a disconnect, perhaps because of
the way Hollywood has portrayed the homosexual agenda. Both Obama
and [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton are pushing the gay-rights
agenda in all of our foreign policy. It is integrated into our
human-rights reporting and human-rights data calls.”
The 58-year-old Smith, a Republican,
added that gay rights had displaced traditional human rights in the
Obama administration, and went on to deny that he's homophobic.
“I take the view of Mother Teresa:
Hate the sin; love the sinner. There’s no animosity. I get so tired
of people who say that if you’re against that agenda you’re
homophobic. There’s nothing further from the truth. I hear it from
members of Congress, but it has nothing to do with it. It’s about
reverence for marriage and the importance of marriage. Look at what’s
happening in D.C., where Catholics have been forced out of the
adoption business; ditto in Massachusetts, where if you refuse
homosexual adoptions you’re out; you can’t do it. So it is very
serious.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gave
Smith
a score of 5 out of 100 in its latest Congressional Scorecard, a
measure of an elected officials' support for gay rights.
Smith chairs the Foreign Affairs
subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights.