WASHINGTON – Today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, condemned Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) for using tax-payer dollars to distribute a misleading anti-gay mailer to his constituents.

“Rep. Buchanan’s decision to waste tax dollars on a misleading mailer spreading his anti-gay views is inappropriate and mean-spirited,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “The people of his district deserve better from their member of congress.”

The mailer deceptively alleges that President Obama and his Administration will no longer enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which is inaccurate.  While President Obama announced last year that his Administration believed the law to be unconstitutional and could not continue to defend it in court, he also made clear that the law would continue to be enforced unless struck down or repealed.  Speaker John Boehner and the House Republicans then hired and have subsequently paid over $1 million in tax dollars to a private attorney to defend the discriminatory law.

A 2011 poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner Research shows that a majority of Americans (51 percent) oppose DOMA, and 54 percent oppose the House Republicans' intervention after the Obama Administration announced it would no longer defend the law in court. 

DOMA forbids the federal government from recognizing legally married same-sex couples, and denies them over 1,000 federal benefits, rights and responsibilities. 

Recently HRC President Joe Solmonese testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), the bill that would effectively repeal DOMA.  Click here to view Solmonese’s testimony. 

The mailer from Rep. Buchanan can be found here.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

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