Perry signs anti-gay marriage pledge

By Shira Schoenberg , Globe Correspondent

Texas Governor Rick Perry is the latest Republican presidential candidate to sign a pledge against gay marriage. The pledge confirms Perry’s reversal of an earlier statement he made that he would leave the definition of marriage up to the states.

The pledge, put out by the National Organization for Marriage, has become a standard commitment among this year’s GOP contenders. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum have also signed the pledge. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is not signing any pledges.

The pledge commits a candidate to support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, appoint judicial nominees and an attorney general who would reject a constitutional right to gay marriage, establish a commission to investigate harassment of anti-gay marriage donors or organizers, and let the people of Washington, D.C., vote on gay marriage.

Perry has long opposed gay marriage. But he said in July, after New York legalized gay marriage, that he supports states’ rights and would not object if individual states implemented gay marriage. He told an audience in Colorado, “That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me.”

Perry later backtracked on that statement and told the conservative Family Research Council that he supports a federal marriage amendment. He accused “activist judges and special interest groups” of trying to redefine marriage for the country.

Brian Brown, president of NOM, said that by signing the pledge, “Perry makes crystal clear that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, gay marriage is going to be a bigger issue in 2012 than it was in 2008, because the difference between the GOP nominee and President Obama is going to be large and clear.”

President Obama has not supported gay marriage in the past, but has said his position is “evolving.” He ordered the federal government to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage on a federal level as between a man and a woman.