A day before GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio reversed his position and came out for marriage equality, Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), insisted conservatives are rallying against gay marriage and that “if the Republican Party abandons traditional marriage, there is no Republican Party.” He also predicted that California’s Proposition 8 will be upheld by the Supreme Court, which is hearing arguments on the case later this month, calling the decision by gay advocates to challenge Prop 8 “the biggest strategic mistake the supporters of same-sex marriage ever have made.”
“I think people are excited [about traditional marriage],” Brown said in an interview on my SiriusXM OutQ radio program, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Thursday. “[Florida Senator] Marco Rubio just stood up there and said, 'Just because I’m for traditional marriage doesn’t make me a bigot.' And everyone stood up and cheered. The grass roots of conservatism are absolutely united behind traditional marriage. Folks I’m seeing here are absolutely committed.” (Scroll down to listen to the full interview)
Brown went on to say that the Republican Party would not exist if Republicans supported same-sex marriage. “If the Republican Party abandons traditional marriage there is no Republican Party,” he said. “You drive the social conservatives out and throw them to the side of the road, there’s no republican party. They’ll go start a third party.”
Brown, speaking before the news broke that John Eastman, NOM's national board chair, said that Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had chosen the “second best option" by adopting children, predicted opponents of gay marriage would win at the Supreme Court.
“We are going to win at the Supreme Court,” he said. “It will be shown to be the biggest strategic mistake the supporters of same-sex marriage ever have made [to challenge Prop 8]. And the reality is that all of them knew this. All of the major [gay] groups knew this. They knew this was the wrong time. We’re going to find that out. Justice Kennedy is not going to launch another culture war like Roe. He’s not going to have Supreme Court interject and short circuit the Democratic process.”
Later, Brown responded to a question by the Washington Blade's Chris Johnson about Eastman's comments about Justice Roberts, in a heated exchange, in which he first seemed to agree with Eastman's comments that children do better with biological parents. But he then dodged the question, making a distinction between gay parents who adopt and heterosexuals.
Listen to the full interview with Brown below:
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