(Click on the image to read the pledge in its entirety.)

This November, Maine residents will have the first-ever opportunity to vote for marriage equality at the ballot, and though polling is strong and steady for the measure, opponents are just beginning to ramp up their own efforts. Anti-gay conservatives Paul Madore and Mike Heath — activists whose heated rhetoric has been squelched in past campaigns — have launched the “No Special Rights PAC” to oppose the referendum. Today, they took their first action, interrupting the beginning of Pride Week at the University of Maine to distribute a “truth pledge,” which refers to the ballot initiative as promoting “Sodomy Based Marriage.” Individuals who take the pledge are encouraged to refer to the freedom to marry as a “special right,” a “hellish” and “evil” doctrine, and an “attack by demonic forces.” Here are some excerpts:

I pledge that I will:

1. Go to the polls and vote NO on Sodomy Based Marriage in November.

3. Use the term “Sodomy Based Marriage” and avoid the deceptive terms “same sex or gay  marriage.”

4. Inform my friends and neighbors that the term “same sex marriage” contains two contradictory terms, and is therefore, illogical, false, and absurd.

5. Marriage is a Covenant that is entered into between two people and is based on a  difference in gender; and there can be no moral or legal right to a practice which defies logic, common sense, and the Natural Law itself.

9. Reaffirm the Christian Church’s teaching that a child must never be denied the right to have both a mother and a father. Oppose the hellish doctrine that parents of the same sex make better parents than parents of the opposite sex, an evil doctrine which is now being advanced by the homosexual rights movement.

11. Pray that God will deliver our State and Country from this attack by demonic force, and that marriage between man and woman will be restored to its rightful place of honor, to the glory of Almighty God.

The pledge also refers to marriage equality as “an attack on the religious freedom of all Christian men and women” that oppresses, silences, and persecutes “those who hold religious or moral objections to homosexuality” and seeks to introduce “homosexual indoctrination into the curricula of our schools.” Madore also told reporters that homosexuality represents a “culture of death.”

Madore and Heath’s rhetoric is unabashedly anti-gay, but it’s important to note that all of the rhetoric fits the models offered by groups that use tamer language, like the National Organization for Marriage and Catholic Church. By framing the effort around so-called “religious freedom” and protecting children, No Special Rights PAC is fighting with fear and trying to erase same-sex families and the many faith communities that support them.

Mike Huckabee urged the GOP presidential nominee to challenge President Obama over the alleged inconsistency of defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act while failing to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. “Regardless of your views on marriage, what this reveals is a very interesting approach that President Obama seems to take to court decisions,” the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential contender said during the inaugural broadcast of The Mike Huckabee Show:

HUCKABEE: If they agree with his particular legislative package, he thinks the court should be obeyed explicitly. But when they disagree with him, he thinks they ought to be ignored. So I think that’s one of the real questions that hopefully whoever the Republican nominee is…that we’re going to find a very important part of the process of this presidential campaign.

Listen:

Lost in Huckabee’s parallel however, is the fact that DOMA is unconstitutional because it violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause by denying benefits to gay and lesbian couples, while the Affordable Care Act regulates the kind of economic commerce that is encompassed by the Constitution’s commerce clause. Huckabee is more than happy to draw similarities that reflect poorly on Obama, but one wonders if he would argue that a Republican president should defend the constitutionality of health reform if he also stands by DOMA.

President Obama’s campaign in Minnesota has issued a statement opposing the state’s proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage:

“While the President does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples,” said Kristen Sosanie, spokeswoman for the Obama for America – Minnesota campaign. “That’s what the Minnesota ballot initiative would do – it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples – and that’s why the President does not support it.”

The Obama campaign offered the same statement in opposition to North Carolina’s Amendment One, and the Catholic bishops responded that his position was “a grave disappointment.” Though the President’s position on same-sex marriage is still “evolving,” he opposes state-level attempts to discriminate against same-sex couples.

Jarrod Scarbrough and Les Sewell — the gay couple urging President Obama to sign an LGBT-inclusive executive order at this morning’s Egg Roll at the White House — told MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts this morning that the measure could shield their family from anti-gay discrimination. The decree, which would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity, has been rubber stamped by the Labor and Justice Departments and is now awaiting approval from the White House.

“Jarrod works for a company that the government contracts through, and we live in New Mexico — we’re actually protected, we don’t have to worry too much about being discriminated against. However, in June we’re moving to Florida where that protection, we’ll no longer have that,” Sewell said. “Without this administrative action, Jarrod could lose his job and then where would this family be?” Watch it:

Last week, a group of 72 lawmakers led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) called on Obama to sign the measure. “This order would extend important workplace protections to millions of Americans, while at the same time laying the groundwork for Congressional passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a goal that we share with you,” the lawmakers wrote, noting that the initiative would also build on President Johnson’s Executive order “prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

As a candidate in 2008, Obama committed to supporting a “formal written policy of non-discrimination that includes sexual orientation and gender identity or expression … for all Federal contractors.” Meanwhile, over 100,000 have signed a Freedom To Work Change.org petition urging the President to take action.

Past Rick Warren reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage during an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, insisting that God and the Bible “is very clear that sex is for a man and a woman in marriage only”:

TAPPER: Do you think there will come a time when Saddleback Church needs to adjust its position on same-sex marriage in the same way the churches have throughout the years adjusted their position, for instance, on divorce.

R. WARREN: Well, if the Bible is the word of God, then I don’t have the right to change it. Policies come and go over the years. And so if I’m unpopular for certain beliefs, well, then I’m unpopular for certain beliefs. And to me, the Bible is very clear that sex is for a man and a woman in marriage only. [...]

TAPPER: I’m wondering if you think the church, in order to continue to thrive, might have to adjust its policy on same-sex marriage?

R. WARREN: Actually, history shows that when the church accommodates culture, it weakens it. This is why there is a very weak church in Europe today. It’s almost non-existent in many areas.

Watch it:

Warren’s anti-gay views became a topic of national conversation after President Obama chose him to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. His beliefs run deep. In 2005, Warren told Fortune magazine that “he would counsel gays and lesbians to adopt a heterosexual lifestyle” and later explained that gay people are immature. “We all have biological predispositions,” Warren explained during an interview with TODAY in December of 2008. “You say because I have natural impulses to the same sex, I shouldn’t have to reign them in. Well I disagree. I think that’s part of maturity, I think that’s part of delayed gratification, I think that’s part of character.” In 2008, the website for Warren’s Saddleback Church also explicitly said that “someone unwilling to repent for their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback.” The language has since been changed.

The pastor had initially refusing to condemn condemn Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill — which would make certain homosexual acts punishable by death — insisting that it wasn’t his “personal calling” to “comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.” When he finally did issue a statement distancing himself from the measure, Warren reiterated his belief that being gay is a sin.