Greater Than, a recently launched campaign seeking to overturn marriage equality nationwide, is facing backlash from pro-LGBTQ activists for using a quote from former President Barack Obama in a way critics say falsely implies he supports the effort.
The campaign’s website displays Obama’s image alongside several prominent opponents of same-sex marriage, including the late Charlie Kirk, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Seth Dillon.
The photos appear beneath two lines reading, “Children’s Rights Aren’t Up for Debate” and “Be a voice that refuses to stay silent — stand up for kids.”
Below Obama’s photo is a 2010 quote from the former president stating, “We know that children benefit not just from loving mothers and loving fathers, but from strong and loving marriages as well.” According to Right Wing Watch, a project of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, the quote comes from a 2010 event promoting responsible fatherhood.
The Greater Than campaign seeks to portray same-sex couples — and those who support marriage equality — as selfish and driven by personal feelings or a desire for societal validation, framing its arguments as prioritizing children over adults.
The website features what appears to be an AI-generated image of a Black teenage boy who looks sad and troubled, while two white men — depicted as the boy’s same-sex parents — hold hands in a bathroom, seemingly unconcerned with the child’s feelings.
Critics of the Greater Than campaign have speculated that the use of such imagery, combined with Obama’s quote taken out of context, is intended to appeal to Black community members — a group that, according to public polling, has historically been less supportive of same-sex marriage and was among the last demographic groups to broadly embrace it.
Obama expressed support for same-sex marriage during his 1996 campaign for the Illinois State Senate, telling The Windy City Times that he supported legalizing it and would fight efforts to ban it. When he later ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, and during his 2008 presidential campaign, he backed away from that position, instead supporting civil unions.
In 2012, Obama said he had “evolved” on the issue and became the first sitting president to support same-sex marriage. Two justices appointed by Obama — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — were part of the majority that ruled in favor of both marriage equality decisions in 2013 and 2015.
“If you’re wondering how credible this new anti-gay marriage organization is, look no further than their home page, which literally tries to present Barack Obama(!) as a gay marriage opponent. This is just embarrassing,” wrote one X user in response to the Greater Than campaign. “Obama’s quote was not about gay marriage, and every gay marriage supporter would agree that loving mothers and loving fathers are both important. We just think that two loving mothers or two loving fathers can also make great parents — which is Obama’s view, too.”
Metro Weekly has reached out to the Office of former President Barack Obama for comment regarding the use of his likeness in the campaign.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, the first out gay leader of the Israeli parliament, angered the ultra-Orthodox parties within the conservative Likud-led governing coalition after voting in favor of a civil marriage bill last week.
The proposed bill, which was ultimately defeated, was introduced by the centrist Yesh Atid party, the largest faction in the opposition. It would have established a legal framework for regulating same-sex partnerships in Israel, including a couples registry, eligibility requirements, registration procedures, and mechanisms for dissolving civil marriages.
A coalition of at least 47 right-wing groups, operating under the name "Greater Than," has launched a coordinated campaign to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, part of a renewed push by social conservatives to reshape national marriage policy.
At the center of the campaign's argument is the claim that the sole purpose of marriage is to raise children, and that the Obergefell decision, along with the cultural shifts that followed it, violates children's rights.
A Russian man has been fined for posting a photo of the iconic rock band Queen dressed in drag on social media, with authorities accusing him of "destroying family values" and violating Russia's law banning the dissemination of so-called "LGBT propaganda."
David Gevondyan posted the offending photo -- showing members of the band dressed in women's clothing and posing by a stairwell in a femininely decorated home during the filming of the music video for the song "I Want to Break Free" -- to VKontakte (VK), Russia's equivalent of Facebook.
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