Republican presidential candidates who are positioning themselves as social conservatives opposed to same-sex marriage will be speaking to an ever diminishing portion of the religious base, last week’s ABC News/Washington Post poll found. That’s because a majority of Americans — 53 percent — now support marriage equality (up from only 32 percent support in 2004), including 53 percent of white Catholics and 57 percent of nonevangelical Protestants. As CAP’s Sally Steenland observes, the public has finally “moved ahead of the religious institutions they belong to and the politicians who represent them”:

It’s true that white evangelicals remain widely opposed—only 25 percent support marriage equality. But even that number is an 11 percent increase from 2004, when only 14 percent showed support. [...]

Those in the pews are expressing a lived reality that is dynamic and complex. More and more, people have openly gay and lesbian friends, co-workers, and family members. They have neighbors who live in committed same-sex unions. When real people bump up against religious ideology, most often it’s the ideology that breaks and gets swept away.

But that’s not the only reason religious people are increasingly supportive of marriage equality. Many faith communities are working hard to welcome gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people into their congregations and stand up for LGBT moral equality. From study groups that wrestle with sacred texts to prophetic witnessing for nondiscrimination policies, religious institutions are increasingly including LGBT issues as part of their justice mission and seeing LGBT people as reflecting the image of God just as they are.

A 2010 study by Brian Powell of Indiana University found that the GOP fixation on anti-LGBT initiatives may actually have expanded support for same-sex marriage by increasing the visibility of LGBT issues and making “a topic that seemed taboo a little bit less taboo.” “One of the fascinating things is that with all this discussion out there whether positive or negative, being able to say the words, just made people more comfortable,” he told me during an interview in September. “With all this discussion about same sex marriage…I think it made people more attuned to who there friends and relatives [are].”

So if Republicans focus on gay marriage during this election cycle, they won’t just be talking to a smaller group of voters. They’ll also be helping a growing number of Americans come out in favor of marriage equality.

Today former Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) announced that he is exploring a Presidential run. In his announcement video, he presents a folksy midwest charm and extols the “brave men and women throughout this country’s history that have asked for nothing more than the freedom to work hard and get ahead without government getting in the way.” But when it comes to LGBT folks and their families, Pawlenty’s actions don’t live up to his lofty rhetoric. Below are eight things you should know about Pawlenty’s record on LGBT issues:

1. Pawlenty proudly opposes recognition of any same-sex unions: In a recent interview on FOX News, he told Greta Van Susteren that he will “never be at the point where I say all domestic relationship[s] are the same as traditional marriage. They are not.” He similarly bragged to the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer in January about helping to craft a same-sex marriage ban in Minnesota.  As part of his recent tour of speeches in Iowa, he also endorsed The Family Leader, a conservative group who promotes the idea that same-sex marriage is worse for people’s health than smoking.

2. Pawlenty supports maintaining Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, rescinding funding to implement its repeal, and perhaps not allowing gays and lesbians to serve at all: In January, he stated he would support reinstating the policy and that doing so would have no impact. Then, in February, he added that he would support rescinding the funding for its repeal as “a reasonable step.” He also refused to indicate whether he thinks gay and lesbian troops should have the right to serve in the military whatsoever.

3.  Pawlenty regrets his vote as a state legislator supporting nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity: Citing its protection of “cross-dressing” and how confusing it would be for third-graders if Mr. Johnson showed up the next day as Mrs. Johnson, Pawlenty lamented his 1993 vote in support of the antidiscrimination law, earning the ire of LGBT groups for his distasteful remarks.

4. Pawlenty vetoed a bill extending end-of-life rights to same-sex couples: As a result of his veto, same-sex couples in Minnesota still have to go through the process of setting up a will to be protected if one partner dies. In addition, same-sex couples continue to be limited in the ability to seek restitution for wrongful death.

5. Pawlenty vetoed an anti-bullying bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Minnesota’s bullying policies and training: Despite numerous concessions made to get the governor’s support, he still vetoed the bill, claiming it was redundant and ignoring the new protections it offered the state’s LGBT students.

6. In 2001, Pawlenty opposed labor unions’ efforts to offer benefits to employees’ same-sex partners: The controversy led to a union strike in the fall of 2001, and then in February of 2003, the unions were forced to accept a compromise that stripped benefits from 85 same-sex partners who had previously been receiving them. [Star Tribune, 10/4/2001 and 2/18/03]

7. Pawlenty vetoed a bill allowing local municipalities in Minnesota to offer domestic partner benefits: The bill would have allowed cities, counties, and school districts to offer domestic partner benefits in the same way more than 300 private companies already do in the state.

8. Pawlenty vetoed a bill allowing state employees to use their accrued sick leave to take care of seriously ill family members: Domestic partners were removed from the bill in hopes that it would prevent a veto, but Pawlenty vetoed it anyway, stating that it would cost too much.

Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla catches potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee saying that he wishes the world was ruled by “people with a biblical worldview” who could bring “equality” to the world. Huckabee made the comments during an appearance at Statesville Christian School in North Carolina yesterday:

He said that the kind of “biblical worldview” taught at SCS was in the direction of unmitigated equality. “I’d love the world to be lead by people who have a biblical worldview,” he said.

“Wouldn’t it be an exciting thing to have leaders who believe all of us are equal?” he later asked …

Huckabee said Sunday that he has been asked many times if it is difficult to be a Christian and a politician/elected official.

“I always answer that actually it’s a lot easier to be a Christian,” he said. “I wake up every day knowing what I believe.”

While some Christian leaders could bring greater equality into the world, Huckabee’s particular version of Christianity would do very little to bring equality to anyone who doesn’t’ fit his definition of family or abide by his rules of sexual conduct or gender conformity.

Before he maligned Natalie Portman for appearing at the Oscars while pregnant, Huckabee had built up an impressive record of speaking out against gay people. Just last month, Huckabee warned that expanding marriage to gays and lesbians would lead to polygamy and promised to use his Constitutional powers and the presidential bully pulpit to prohibit same-sex unions if he were elected president. He also implied that same-sex couples are “dysfunctional” and should not raise children. For more on Huckabee’s record of ani-gay pronouncements, click over to Media Matters’ comprehensive review.