Maggie Gallagher, president of the
National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has attacked conservative
lawyer Ted Olson's reasons for defending gay marriage. NOM, the
nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, is a major backer
of the campaign to repeal gay marriage in Maine.
Olson and David Boies are representing
a gay couple and a lesbian couple in their fight to strike down
Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that bans gay marriage in
California.
Writing at the National
Review, Gallagher called Olson's defense a use of “the
Constitution (IE the power of government) to impose your values.”
“I have seen the arguments he and
David Boies are using in the case to strike down Prop 8 and impose
gay marriage on all 50 states,” Gallagher said. “They are
standard liberal fare – speaking constitutionally, not
politically.”
Gallagher was rapped by comments Olson
made on Sunday to the San
Francisco Chronicle.
“If individuals love one another and
want to live in a stable relationship recognized by the state as a
community and a family, that strikes me as a conservative value,”
Olson said, referring to conservatives who have questioned his
values.
And in answering how he came to support
gay rights, Olson said, “I've developed respect for people's
decision in private sexual affairs. … These are our friends and our
neighbors and our colleagues. We need to treat them as equals.”
A conservative Republican defending the
rights of gay men and lesbians has shaken both liberals and
conservatives who find it difficult to reconcile the idea.