This morning, during an appearance on CSPAN’s Washington Journal, Family Research Council Action’s Vice President Tom McClusky refused to say if he thought homosexuality is “disease” and an “illness” saying only, “we’re all human beings here,” before condemning gay people for demanding “special rights”:

CALLER JOBE: I want to thank Mr. McClusky for his fight against this homosexual disease we’ve got in this country…It’s a sick perverted thing that they’re doing, they’re trying to legitimize.

HOST: Is it a disease?

MCCLUSKY: I think the first think we need to remember is that we’re all human beings here, especially in this debate and everybody deserves respect. It’s when others are asking for things and for special rights and for special definitions, sometimes just for validation. I think that’s when you start running into problems.

Watch it:

Earlier in the program, McClusky conceded that expanding marriage to gays and lesbians won’t affect “my marriage directly” but argued that “it helps defining marriage down where it gets defined into nothing.” “We’ve seen that in other countries who have allowed for gay marriage and have had civil unions for longer… it starts affecting the whole community,” he added.

McClusky’s claims are undermined by the experiences of Massachusetts and Iowa, both of which allow same-sex marriage but have some of the lowest divorce rates in the nation. Massachusetts— which extended marriage to same-sex couples in 2004– recorded the “the lowest divorce rates in the entire country”; Iowa has also posted the lowest number of divorces since 1970.

In fact as FiveThirtyEight.com pointed out last year, “states which have tended to take more liberal policies toward gay marriage have tended also to have larger declines in their divorce rates,” while the seven states with the highest rates “all had constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriage in place throughout 2008.” And although the causation may still be unclear, it’s certainly not the case that same sex marriage results in the disintegration of the institution as a whole.

“The Family Research Council (FRC) bills itself as ‘the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,’ but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians,” SPLC says. Indeed, so-called FRC “experts” (who most recently lobbied to preserve Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) have argued that “gaining access to children” “has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement” and claimed that “[o]ne of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets of a new sexual order.” FRC President Tony Perkins has even described pedophilia as a “homosexual problem.”

Earlier this week, Tony Perkins, the group’s president, argued that gay relationships are “harmful” and endanger “physical health.”

MD Del. Sam Arora (D)

Maryland Delegate Sam Arora (D), who has come under intense criticism from bloggers and donors for wavering in his support for expanding marriage to gays and lesbians in the state, has finally released a statement saying that he opposes marriage equality, but will vote the bill out of the House Judiciary Committee and support it on the House floor.

Arora also threw his support behind the referendum sponsored by out of state anti-gay forces that would put the question of marriage on the 2012 ballot:

I have heard from constituents, friends, and advocates from across the spectrum of views and have thought about the issue of same-sex marriage extensively. I understand their concern—this is a very serious issue, and one that many people feel passionately about. As the vote drew nearer, I wrestled with this issue in a way I never had before, which led me to realize that I had some concerns about the bill. While I personally believe that Maryland should extend civil rights to same-sex couples through civil unions, I have come to the conclusion that this issue has such impact on the people of Maryland that they should have a direct say. I will vote to send the bill to the floor because it deserves an up-or-down vote. On the floor, I will vote to send the bill to the governor so that Marylanders can ultimately decide this issue at the polls. I think that is appropriate.

While running for office, however, Arora secured the support of gay and lesbian donors — including the endorsements of Equality Maryland and Progressive Maryland — by promising to support equal marriage rights. In an email to supporters dated February 3, 2011 Arora boasted of his support for the equality bill and has previously tweeted about his sponsorship of the legislation. The tweet has since been deleted.

Numerous donors have asked Arora to refund their contributions to his campaign and Chevy Chase Mayor David Lublin has said that “if Arora does vote against the marriage legislation on the House floor, his next move should be to resign.” “If he honestly feels like he cannot vote for this on the floor, the only honorable course of action will be for him to resign because he campaigned so strongly on the issue to so many different people,” Lubin told Metro Weekly.

Meanwhile, out-of-state opponents are mobilizing for a referendum fight. National organizations like the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage have promised to organize churches that “will be the source of most of the 53,650 signatures needed to get same-sex marriage on the 2012 ballot.” Opponents of marriage “can start collecting signatures immediately after the passage of the bill in the House of Delegates, before Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) signs the bill.”