North Carolina State Senator James Forrester, the sponsor of the state's gay marriage ban, says the amendment is needed to thwart a gay agenda, media watchdog group RightWingWatch.org reported.

Forrester has tried over the past eight years to get his constitutional amendment that would ban gay and lesbian couples from marrying through the General Assembly. Last week, lawmakers decided to put the question up for a vote in May.

During a Tuesday appearance on Concerned Women for America (CWA) radio, Forrester insisted the amendment would keep an encroaching gay agenda at bay.

“In some states even though the states have ratified having marriage between one man and one woman in the constitution, activist judges have overruled that, overruled the will of the people, that bothers me too, but if we don't have it in the constitution there's a whole lot better chance for them succeeding in what they're trying to do,” Forrester said. “So I'm very encouraged that we're gonna have the opportunity to vote on it, hopefully put it in our constitution, and make it more difficult for the homosexual group to get their agenda recognized as being normal and getting it into schools and things like that. So I'm very, very happy this morning.” (The audio is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

(Related: James Forrester equates gay people with cesspool.)