Michele Bachmann became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge by The Family Leader, an Iowa-based religious right group. The 14-point pledge (PDF) asks candidates to ban same-sex marriage, protect women and children from pornography and reject Islamic law. Signers also must promise to affirm that same-sex marriage is akin to polygamy and that having many children is good for America. The vow also insinuates that homosexuality is a choice, and that being gay or lesbian is a public health risk.
The Family Leader, run by Bob Vander Plaats, has positioned itself as one of the most powerful Republican groups in the run up to the Iowa caucuses.
The pledge contains 14 vows and several pages of footnotes. Vow nine states that GOP presidential candidates must “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” and protect them from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography.”
Other vows ask candidates to oppose same-sex marriage and work toward making it illegal in states where it has been approved. The pledge also asks candidates to work to protect military personnel from “commingling among attracteds” in showers and barracks in a veiled reference to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Toward the end of the long list of religious prohibitions, the pledge asks candidates to vow to oppose Sharia law because it is a “form of totalitarian control.”
Footnote eight says that no scientific evidence exists to show that homosexuality is not changeable.
Bachmann quickly signed the pledge on Thursday evening shortly after it was unveiled. Alice Stewart, a Bachmann aide, told the Des Moines Register that Bachmann had no qualms about signing The Family Leader’s pledge. “She has been married for over 30 years and has a strong marriage and faith.”
Tim Pawlenty told the Register that he is reviewing the pledge.
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