Christian Family Coalition Condemns U.S. Representative Ros-Lehtinen For Co-Sponsoring Repeal Of Defense Of Marriage Act; Call Her “Anti-Family Homosexualist Extremist”

The religious right is going after a popular South Florida congresswoman, The Orlando Sentinel reporting that the Christian Family Coalition excoriated U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Thursday since she is the first Republican in Congress to co-sponsor legislation to repeal the 1996 federal ban on same sex marriage called the Defense of Marriage Act. The group said: “Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) has embarrassed and ridiculed herself by tragically becoming the first Republican to co-sponsor on a socially destructive and totally undemocratic bill to repeal the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that respects marriage at the Federal level. This new fraudulent legislation seeks to impose homosexual so-called "marriage" on all fifty (50) states and thereby trample on the will of the American people and our nation's traditions and values. Voters elected Rep. Ros-Lehtinen as a pro-Life, pro-Family Conservative, not as an arrogant, anti-Family, homosexualist extremist. Homosexual so-called "marriage" was never part of her campaign platform. She lied to and misled her own constituents, campaign donors and volunteers by corruptly kowtowing to the anti-social, extremist homosexualist agenda in exchange for who knows what.” Ros-Lehtinen said that "The need for equality for all is ongoing. I support repeal of DOMA because marriage equality is a goal that we should all work together to reach." Ros-Lehtinen voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. But the gay rights group SAVE Dade now says she has a “record of leadership for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of South Florida and our entire country.” Her district includes South Beach and Key West, two communities with large lesbian and gay populations. In May, she became the first Republican cosponsor of federal legislation to ensure gay and lesbian parents can legally adopt children. And she has a family interest in the issue. Her daughter Amanda has come out, publicly, as a transgender man named Rodrigo. Her spokesman declined to comment on the Christian Family Coalition’s comments. The repeal legislation, called the Respect for Marriage Act, has 127 cosponsors. Besides Ros-Lehtinen, the Miami Republican, other South Florida members of Congress co-sponsoring the measure are U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton; Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar; and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston. The non-partisan summary of the bill prepared by the Congressional Research Service reads: “Respect for Marriage Act - Amends the Defense of Marriage Act to repeal a provision that prohibited a state, territory, possession, or Indian tribe from being required to recognize any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a same sex marriage. Amends the federal rules of construction added by such Act concerning the definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" to provide that, for purposes of any federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that individual's marriage is valid in the state where the marriage was entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any state, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the marriage could have been entered into in a state. Removes the definition of "spouse" (currently, a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife).”