Antigay Rev. Takes Credit for Marriage Ban

Radio host and preacher Bradlee Dean is proudly taking credit for getting a gay marriage ban onto ballots in Minnesota. And that might be just fine with groups opposed to its approval.

The Minnesota Independentpoints out that Democrats had already started referring to "the Bradlee Dean amendment" when talking about the measure, which passed the legislature in May and puts a ban of same-sex marriage up for a vote on 2012 ballots.

After the vote, the Twitter feed for state senate District 22 predicted, "MNGOP knows they are on the wrong side of history by passing the Bradlee Dean amendment. It WILL be defeated in 2012."

But Dean has a different view of his influence.

"I believe that I have done my duty," Dean wrote this weekend on his blog. "The people of the great state of Minnesota now have the power to vote. It is now up to you to decide for your posterity what kind of future that you want to have for them. The power is in your hands. I rest my case."

Dean is the founder of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International ministry. He might best be remembered by Republicans who were forced to denounce Dean after he led a prayer from the floor of the state's House of Representatives and questioned President Obama's faith. Dean has also accused U.S. representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is a Muslim, of wanting to institute sharia law while paradoxically claiming that Muslim countries that execute gay people are "more moral than even the American Christians."

After Dean's prayer for Minnesota lawmakers, Ellison warned Republicans about getting too cozy with the preacher. "There's a slight possibility they may not know quite how extreme this guy is," Ellison told The Daily Beast. "But they ought to know."