Right Wing Groups Have Dissension Among the Ranks

Tim Pawlenty’s evangelical Christianity and his ties to the 30-million-strong National Association of Evangelicals (now chaired by the pastor of Pawlenty’s Eden Prairie church, Leith Anderson) has remained strong.

In 1993, Pawlenty was one of 11 House Republicans to vote for the Human Rights Amendment that outlawed discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation. It was the first legislation in the nation to offer protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. While he was running for governor in 2002, he has repeatedly said that vote is the only one he regretted from his days in the Legislature.

When labor unions asked for health benefits for same-sex partners in state labor contracts in 2001, he vehemently opposed those benefits.

In 2004, he signed a pledge to support a constitutional anti-gay marriage amendment. “Traditional marriage is itself a pledge, and I will take a pledge to defend it,” he said. “Some issues are too important to play the field with.”

In 2006, he appeared in an anti-same-sex-marriage video produced by the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Despite all this, Pawlenty was criticized for “promotion of homosexual agenda” in 2006 by the religious right group EdWatch. “Homosexual advocacy groups are being funded by grants from the state Department of Health under his authority,” wrote EdWatch in a letter about Pawlenty. “Additionally, under Governor Pawlenty’s supervision, his administration is actively promoting the indoctrination of students into a homosexual worldview and value system.”

Looks like the witch-hunt for those gay agenda supporters continues.