GOP Presidential hopeful and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson blasted the social pledge unveiled by Iowa homophobe Bob Vander Plaats, calling it “offensive to the principles of liberty and freedom on which this country was founded.”

Johnson said “the so-called ‘Marriage Vow’” pledge that Vander Platts and his Iowa-based conservative Christian group “The Family Leader” is asking Republican candidates for President to sign, attacks minority segments of our population and attempts to prevent and eliminate personal freedom.

Gary Johnson

“This type of rhetoric is what gives Republicans a bad name,” he said.

This “pledge” is nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn’t fit into a particular definition of “virtue.”

While the Family Leader pledge covers just about every other so-called virtue they can think of, the one that is conspicuously missing is tolerance. In one concise document, they manage to condemn gays, single parents, single individuals, divorcees, Muslims, gays in the military, unmarried couples, women who choose to have abortions and everyone else who doesn’t fit in a Norman Rockwell painting.

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If candidates who sign this pledge somehow think they are scoring some points with some core constituency of the Republican Party, they are doing so at the peril of writing off the vast majority of Americans who want no part of this “pledge” and its offensive language.

The pledge includes 14 bullet points that signers must agree to, including opposition to any “redefinition of marriage,” likens same-sex couples to polygamists and adulterers, and states that homosexuality is both a choice and a health risk.

It also included what critics described as “pro-slavery” language, but the pledge was revised on Saturday to remove that passage.

GOP hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have already signed the pledge.

Tags: Bob Vander Plaats, Decision 2012, Family Leader, Gary Johnson, GOP, Homophobia, Iowa, Marriage Equality, New Mexico, Politics, Republicans

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