Michele Bachmann first GOP presidential hopeful to sign anti-gay pledge

A prominent Iowa social conservative group called “The Family Leader” has convinced Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to sign a pledge to uphold “traditional marriage” and ban all forms of pornography.


Bachmann signed the pledge Thursday, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to do so. Tim Pawlenty was said to be “reviewing” the pledge.

The pledge includes 14 bullet points that signers must agree to. Signers agree to oppose any “redefinition of marriage,” and the pledge likens same-sex couples to polygamists and adulterers:


“Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage . . . through statutory, bureaucratic, or court imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex.”

The pledge also asserts that homosexuality is a choice, not an innate characteristic.

A footnote also indicates the belief that homosexuality is a public health risk akin to second hand smoking that decreases life expectancy.

Signers agree that female pornography should be banned in an effort to protect women from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography . . . and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”