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The president of a conservative organization which opposes rights for LGBT people on Sunday rejected the notion that public opinion now supports marriage equality because "the polls are skewed."

Speaking to American Values President Gary Bauer, Fox News host Chris Wallace wondered if conservatives should oppose the federal government interfering in states' rights by refusing to recognize the legal marriages of LGBT Americans.

"I don't think so," Bauer insisted. "A lot of people are changing their mind because there's been a full-court blitz by the popular culture, by elites, by all kinds of folks to intimidate and to cower people and to no longer defend marriage as being between a man and a woman."

"Quite frankly, the argument that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of same sex marriage is ludicrous," he continued. "If it was so obvious that the American public wants to try a radical social experiment that results in children in those households definitely -- definitely not having a mother and a father, that's what makes marriage a special institution. It guarantees that children have mothers and fathers. If the opinion of the American public was so overwhelming, the gay rights movement and their allies like Nicole [Wallace] would not be asking the Supreme Court to say to the America people, 'You have no say on this issue.'"

Wallace pointed out that a recent Washington Post poll found that 58 percent of Americans agreed that same sex marriage should be legal, and 70 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 39 supported equal marriage rights.

"Do you worry that this only puts the Republican Party further out of touch?" Wallace pressed Bauer.

"No, I'm not worried about it because the polls are skewed," the former Family Research Council president replied. "Just this last November, four states -- four liberal states -- voted on this issue. My side lost those votes, but my side had 45, 46 percent of the vote in all four of those liberal states. In fact, those marriage amendments that would keep marriage for a man and woman outran Mitt Romney in those four liberal states by an average of five points."

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Sunday suggested that implementing a flat tax could assuage gay and lesbian Americans who want equal marriage rights because straight marriages would not get a tax break.

During an interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace pointed out that the Supreme Court would be hearing arguments this week on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages even in states where those unions are legal.

"Would you strike down that as federal interference in a state matter," Wallace asked the libertarian senator.

"You know, I think it's a really complicated issue," Paul asserted. "I've always said the states have the right to decide. I do believe in traditional marriage. Kentucky's decided it, and I don't think the federal government should tell us otherwise. There are states that have decided in the opposite direction, and I don't think the federal government should tell anybody or any state government how they should decide this."

"I think there is a chance that the court could strike down the federalization part [of DOMA]," he continued. "If they do, I think the way to fix it is maybe to try to make all of our laws more neutral towards the issue. And I don't want the government promoting something I don't believe in, but I also don't mind if the government tries to be neutral on the issue."

"You know the tax code -- I'm for a flat income tax, and we wouldn't have marriage as part of the tax code."

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Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman recently reversed on his opposition to same sex marriage after his son came out as gay, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says that he would never support equal marriage rights for an LGBT child.

During an interview with ABC that aired on Sunday, host Martha Raddatz asked Boehner if he had talked to Portman about his change of heart.

"He has, in fact, called," the House Speaker admitted. "I appreciate that he's decided to change his views on this, but I believe that marriage is a union of a man and a woman."

"Can you imagine yourself in a situation where you reversed your decision as Portman has on gay marriage if a child of yours or someone you loved told you they were gay?" Raddatz pressed.

"I believe that marriage is the union of one man, one woman," Boehner repeated. "It's what I grew up with, it's what I believe, it's what my church teaches me."

"And I can't imagine that position would ever change."

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Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins is defending the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning gay members by saying the organization wanted to "make good citizens" by encouraging scouts to be "morally straight."

In a letter earlier this week, Perkins had blasted UPS CEO D. Scott Davis after the shipping company decided to stop funding the Boy Scouts over its anti-LGBT stance.

"Apparently, the company isn't interested in true diversity but in strong-arming anyone who disagrees with their extreme agenda -- including a century-old youth development program, whose only crime is instilling character into millions of American boys," a statement on FRC's website said. "As for their longstanding policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are doing what every parent would want them to: putting children's safety first."

CNN host John Berman on Friday, invited Perkins, who founded the designated hate group, to explain why his organization was boycotting UPS.

"Well, the Boy Scouts for over 100 years, as part of their moral code, has challenged boys to be straight and to be upstanding citizens," Perkins opined. "That's their code, morally straight, that they not engage in sexual behavior, that they keep themselves morally conditioned and mentally sharp, and that's been their code."

"What have you is you have a few corporations, major corporations, who are saying, look, unless you abandon a century old value set, we're not going to give you money," he continued. "And the -- some things don't change with time. The Boy Scouts are one that have laid down a marker and said we will continue with what's worked for our boys. We're going to continue to produce young men who make good citizens."

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Conservative columnist George Will suspects that the Supreme Court could support equal rights for LGBT people because "quite literally the opposition to gay marriage is dying... it's old people."

On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it would take up cases on California's Prop 8 same sex marriage ban and the federal government's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies benefits to gay and lesbian spouses.

Will on Sunday suggested that it was not a coincidence that the court decided to hear the cases just a month after voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington backed marriage equality.

"It could make them say, 'It's not necessary for us to go here,'" Will explained. "They don't want to do what they did with abortion. The country was having a constructive accommodation on abortion, liberalizing abortion laws. The court yanked the subject out of democratic discourse and embittered the argument."

He continued: "On the other hand, they can say it's now safe to look at this because there is something like an emerging consensus. Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying... it's old people."

Republican strategist Mary Matalin, who has previously said that marriage equality is not a civil right, asserted that polls now show Americans support same sex marriage because they know it's not a "threat to the civil order."

"Well, because Americans have common sense," she explained. "There are important constitutional, biological, theological, ontological questions relative to homosexual marriage. People who live in the real world say, the greater threat to the civil order are the heterosexuals who don’t get married and are making babies. That’s an epidemic in crisis proportions. That is irrefutably more problematic for our culture than homosexuals getting married."

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The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday said that they had denied a gay California teen Eagle Scout honors because he had not lived up to the principle of "duty to God" with his sexual orientation.

The Scoutmaster for Troop 212 in Moraga decided that Ryan Andresen was "no longer eligible for membership in Scouting" after they learned he was gay, even though he had completed all of his requirements for Eagle Scout, including building a "tolerance wall" to honor those that had been bullied like himself.

"I want everyone to know that [the Eagle award] should be based on accomplishment, not your sexual orientation," Ryan Andresen's mother, Karen, told NBC News. "Ryan entered Scouts when he was six years old and in no way knew what he was."

"I think right now the scoutmaster is sending Ryan the message that he’s not a valued human being and I want Ryan to know that he is valued … and that people care about him," she added.

Karen Andresen said that the Eagle Scout decision was "a total shock" because the scoutmaster was aware that her son had come out in July and had said nothing.

The Boy Scouts of America have a longstanding policy of banning gay leaders and Scouts.

"[Ryan] notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout Counselor that he does not agree to Scouting’s principle of 'Duty to God' and does not meet Scouting’s membership standard on sexual orientation," Boy Scouts spokesperson Deron Smith explained to NBC News in a statement. "While the BSA did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting."

Karen Andresen created a Change.org petition calling on the Boy Scouts to award Ryan with the Eagle Scout honor that he earned. The petition had received over 132,000 signatures by Friday morning.

(h/t: Towelroad)

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Chick-fil-A founder Dan Cathy recently said that his company funded groups that oppose equal rights for LGBT people because it wanted to "support biblical families."

In one of his first on-camera interviews since he told the Baptist Press that Chick-fil-A was “guilty as charged” of working to prevent marriage equality, Cathy tried to avoid the controversy but used the word "family" six times in 11 seconds.

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit," Cathy told WXIA's Matt Pearl on Saturday. "We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."

"Families are very important to our country," he added. "And they're very important to those of us who are concerned about being able to hang on to our heritage."

"We support biblical families, and they've always been a part of that."

After a summer filled with protests and counter-protests over the restaurant chain's stance on marriage equality, Chick-fil-A reportedly agreed to stop funding groups opposing rights for LGBT people, some of which had been labeled as hate groups. But just two days later, the company changed its tune.

“Chick-fil-A and its charitable-giving arm, the WinShape Foundation, did not agree to stop making donations to groups that support the biblical definition of marriage in exchange for being allowed to open a franchise in Chicago,” a statement from the company said.

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

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Arnold Schwarzenegger recently floored veteran CBS reporter Leslie Stahl by revealing that he had rejected the Republican Party platform and performed multiple same sex weddings while still serving as the governor of California.

"I always said I have nothing against people doing what they want to do," Schwarzenegger told Stahl in an interview that will air Sunday on CBS. "If a couple wants to get married, they should get married. I personally always said that marriage is between a man and a woman, but I never would enforce my will on people. I always want people to make that decision. If they want to get married, let them get married."

Stahl reminded the former governor that he had once called his chief of staff "a cigar smoking lesbian."

"She got married. Did you go to the wedding?" the CBS reporter wondered.

"I performed the wedding in the office," Schwarzenegger replied with a smile. "I married her in the office -- in the governor's office. I don't have to be for gay marriage. I'm for that she gets the kind of wedding and the kind of ceremony that I had when I got married with Maria [Shriver]. That she happens to love a woman and I am a guy that loves a woman, that is two different things, that doesn't make any difference. She should still have her ceremony."

Schwarzenegger added that he had also married one other assistant who was in a same sex relationship.

"I didn't know that," Stahl said, clearly surprised.

"That's why I give you the scoop so you have some news," Schwarzenegger laughed.

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Paul Ryan on Tuesday suggested that equal marriage rights for LGBT people was not part of "American values" -- or even "universal human values."

At a town hall-style campaign event in Cincinnati, Ohio, a Latina woman who said she was "fully Republican" asked the vice presidential nominee how the GOP could better attract Hispanic voters with a message about "the value of life -- pre-born -- traditional marriage, religious freedom."

"Our rights come from nature and nature's God, not from government," Ryan explained. "That notion, that idea produces liberty and freedom and free enterprise and opportunity and social mobility -- upward mobility."

"And by embracing those values that made us strong and great: liberty, freedom free enterprise, self-determination -- the things you talk about like traditional marriage and entrepreneurship -- these aren't values that are indicative to any one person or creed or color. These are American values, these are universal human values."

(h/t: Towleroad, Think Progress)

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The Republican candidate for Minnesota state House District 8B says that voters should enshrine marriage discrimination in the state's constitution because homosexuality is not "normal behavior."

During a debate on Thursday, Minnesota state Rep. Mary Franson (R) was asked if she supported a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage, which is already not legally recognized in the state.

"You know, under current state law it is illegal for a man and a man or a female and a female to get married," she explained. "The constitutional amendment doesn't change anything that is in state law. All it does is give the voters a chance to decide how they want to define marriage. How do they see marriage?"

Franson added that if the amendment was passed then there would be "consequences" for public education.

"My concerns are that our children in our schools could be taught some liberal agendas because of the marriage amendment," she insisted. "Because in the schools they may be taught that, this is normal behavior. I personally do not believe it is."

Franson's opponent, Alexandria coach and teacher Bob Cunniff (DFL), refused to take a stand on the amendment, but said schools don't "don't try to influence people on their way of thinking in that respect."

"Massachusetts, as a matter of fact, right after the 2003 court ruling [legalizing marriage equality] there was a school-wide assembly celebrating same sex marriage," Franson noted. "Then, and a few months later, the middle school was celebrating same sex marriage. And a year after that bill passed, schools went as far as elementary children having celebrations of the same-sex marriage, of gay pride. School books in Massachusetts, also in the libraries had this issue as normalizing it for our young children."

"And that's something that I wish to protect our children from," she concluded.

Voters go to the polls in November to decide if a ban on same sex marriage should be added to the state's Constitution. A survey released by Public Policy Polling earlier this month found that 48 percent supported the amendment and 47 percent opposed it.

Franson came under fire earlier this year when she released a YouTube video comparing food-stamp recipients to wild animals.

(h/t: City Pages)