Gay Bill Offends Souder's "Moral Views"

Indiana Republican representative Mark Souder went on a rant last November about the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, which would provide health and pension benefits to same-sex partners of government employees, and how it morally offends his Christian values.

Souder announced Tuesday he would resign from Congress after having an affair with a female member of his staff. "I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff," he said in a statement.

During a committee markup of the LGBT bill last fall, Souder argued that providing basic benefits to domestic partners was an attack on traditional marriage and the Christian values this country was founded on.

"I do believe that as a moral country, as a country that was founded in these values, we have always paid tribute to these values of traditional marriage and that the thrust of this bill, which a number of these amendments have tried to address, have highlighted what is clearly a deep cultural divide in this country. And that when it's thrust at us, we're going to defend it," said Souder, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee passed the bill 23-12 on a party line vote, but the full House has yet to vote on it.

Souder has scored a zero on every Human Rights Campaign LGBT equality scorecard since entering Congress in 1995. He has consistently voted against equal employment protections, hate-crimes laws, increases in HIV/AIDS funding, and providing any measure of equality to same-sex couples.

Watch video of Souder's rant below.