A new campaign aimed at repealing same-sex marriage rights in the United States has come under fire for falsely implying Barack Obama supports their cause by misrepresenting one of his quotes.
The campaign, titled Greater Than, displays a quote from the former president on its website alongside images of far-right anti-LGBTQ+ figures, including the late Charlie Kirk, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Seth Dillon — suggesting that Obama aligns with their opposition to marriage equality. He does not.
Misusing Obama’s Words
Beneath Obama’s image is a quote from 2010:
“We know that children benefit not just from loving mothers and loving fathers, but from strong and loving marriages as well.”
Greater Than uses this quote to imply Obama supports the anti-LGBTQ+ trope that children need both a mother and a father — and that same-sex couples are somehow inadequate. In reality, the quote came from a 2010 event on responsible fatherhood and had nothing to do with same-sex marriage, according to Right Wing Watch.
Obama’s Actual Record on LGBTQ+ Rights
Barack Obama publicly supported same-sex marriage as early as 1996 during his Illinois state Senate campaign — a fact he walked back during his 2008 and 2012 presidential runs, during which he said he supported civil unions but viewed “marriage as between one man and one woman.” This change was widely viewed as a political strategy.
He later reversed this position in a historic 2012 ABC News interview, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to support marriage equality. His administration also appointed two Supreme Court justices — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — who voted in favour of the 2015 ruling that legalised same-sex marriage.
AI Imagery and Racist Dog Whistles
Greater Than’s website also features what appears to be an AI-generated image of a sad Black teen, with two white gay men — presumably his adoptive fathers — smiling in the background, seemingly indifferent.
Critics argue that the use of a Black teen in this context by a campaign largely driven by white Christian conservatives is an attempt to manipulate racial and parental anxieties, using Black bodies as props to undermine queer families.
The Face Behind the Campaign
The campaign is spearheaded by Katy Faust, a long-time anti-marriage-equality activist known for her inflammatory claims linking queer parenting to harm against children.
In a recent interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council — a group labelled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre — Faust said:
“There is a direct connection between gay marriage and child victimisation.”
Her campaign uses phrases like “Don’t touch the kids”, echoing well-worn and dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ smears that suggest queer people are a threat to children.
The Truth About LGBTQ+ Parenting
Despite the fearmongering, numerous studies — including a Cornell University review of 79 studies — have shown that children raised by same-sex couples fare just as well as, or better than, those raised by opposite-sex couples.
Yet Faust continues to describe same-sex parenting as a “destructive state-sanctioned gaslighting experiment”, reinforcing harmful narratives already used against transgender youth and families seeking gender-affirming care.
Notably, Faust revealed in a recent podcast that her mother has been in a same-sex relationship for 40 years, and that her parents divorced during her childhood — adding a layer of personal complexity to her activism.
