Nebraska senators react to ad opposing gay marriage

Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson, the U.S. senators from Nebraska, are taking issue with a half-page ad run in the state's largest newspaper calling for them to support a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The ad was paid for by Focus on the Family Action, the lobbying arm of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based evangelical group Focus on the Family. It ran in Monday editions of the Omaha World-Herald. "Why don't Senators Hagel and Nelson believe every child needs a mother and a father?" the ad says. Pictured in the ad is a forlorn-looking young boy. "I'm not sure where they got that," Hagel, a Republican, responded Monday. "I am a father, and my children have a mother. The whole thing starts out in a misleading way." Both Hagel and Nelson, who oppose gay marriage, say the issue has already been addressed by Nebraska and other states as well as in the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Nelson, a Democrat, said the group is wasting its money by running the ads. "We're on the same side of the issue. We have no disagreement about gay marriage," Nelson said. "The disagreement is about whether it's necessary to have a constitutional amendment at this time...and I don't see that it is."