Congress feared the U.S. government would pay Social Security survivors benefits to "husbands" of men dying of AIDS.

DOMA passed in 1996 by 342-67 in the House and by 85-14 in the Senate. Even Joe Biden voted for it. By not saying he favored gay marriage, Obama clearly hoped to avoid galvanizing conservatives in such states as North Carolina, voting this week on whether to pass a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman.

The second doctrine is that it is hypocritical, and thus bad or self-destructive, to act against one's true nature. Indeed, more than that, it is one's true nature and motivations that really matter. If you are a politician, we are not interested in whether your tax cut for the rich is good or bad for business and general prosperity - what we care about is whether you personally gain from it.

SMUG charges that Lively "worked extensively with key anti-gay political and religious leaders in Uganda with the overall purpose and objective of depriving LGBTI persons of their fundamental rights" by defeating anti-discrimination legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity, and introducing a bill heightening penalties against homosexuality.

At a mayoral hustings last week at St James's Piccadilly, Mr Johnson declared that he banned the ads on London buses by Christian groups, Anglican Mainstream and Core Issues Trust, because "the backlash would be so intense it would not have been in the interest of Christian people in this city".