House Dems pose for photos to protest California's same-sex marriage ban

Ten House Democrats have lent their faces to a campaign against California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, and had their photographs released this week in support of that campaign.

Proposition 8 was struck down by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in February, but supporters of the ban are expected to ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider that ruling.

In the meantime, the campaign against the ban, NOH8, enlisted members of Congress to support efforts to ensure the ban is struck down.

"The notion that we could ask these men and women to do everything from paying taxes to serving our country in uniform while denying them the right to marry is offensive to everything I believe in as a public servant," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one of the 10 who participated in a mid-February photo shoot. "I won't stop working for equal rights in Congress until they have been extended to every American."

"Hate does not belong in our communities, families, schools, the workplace and certainly not in our government," added Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), another participant.

Other members who posed for photos were Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

---