Mayors for the Freedom to Marry

DC Mayor Vincent Gray and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, both Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, have spoken out against the National Organization for Marriage’s race-baiting tactics as revealed this week in confidential memos:

VILLARAIGOSA: We need to come together as a country if we are going to tackle our biggest challenges. NOM’s divisive effort to pit one group of Americans against another is offensive and takes us in exactly the wrong direction. If we believe in family values, we must value all families; and I believe that every adult – regardless of race, religion, gender or ethnic heritage – should have the freedom to marry the person they love.

GRAY: Across our nation, gay and lesbian couples seek equal marriage rights because they believe in the same values we all do – commitment, stability, responsibility and family. That’s why it’s especially confounding that an organization that claims to support family values would seek to pit groups against each other in a hateful and cynical effort to deny equal rights to some families.

NOM’s co-founder Maggie Gallagher followed through on those very tactics this morning, telling MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, “I don’t apologize for any of it.”

Democratic Convention Chair and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the latest in a growing list of Democrats to endorse marriage equality in the 2012 Democratic platform. During a Politico Playbook forum this morning, Villaraigosa — a long-time supporter of same-sex marriage– argued that extending marriage equality to gays and lesbians is “basic to who we are” and intergal to “family values.” “We all ought to be able to have a family, to marry if you want to and I don’t think the government should be in that business of denying people the fundamental right to marry,” he explained:

MIKE ALLEN: Do you think that the Democratic national platform should have a marriage equality plank?

VILLARAIGOSA: I do…We want to make this the most accessible convention possible. This just isn’t going to be open to a small group of people. On two of the four days there will be an opportunity for a much larger representation of people from all over the country to participate in our convention. The delegates will make the decision on the platform, but I do support it and certainly have for a long time.

Watch it:

At least 22 senators and seven co-chairs of President Obama’s re-election bid have indicated their support for including marriage equality in the platform, as part of Freedom To Marry’s Democrats: Say I Do campaign. Interestingly, Villaraigosa was far more circumspect about the effort last month, telling reporters on a conference call that while he backs marriage equality, that “it’s not for me to dictate” whether that position is part of the party’s official platform. (HT: Michael Lavers)