"Face the Nation" transcript May 13: Same-sex marriage, bomb plot leak, Mother's Day panel

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you about something that Senator Rand Paul said. We ran it at the top of the broadcast but I just want to get your thought on this.

SENATOR RAND PAUL (Friday): The President, you know, recently weighed in on marriage, and you know, he said that his views were evolving on marriage. Call me cynical, but I wasn't sure that his views on marriage could get any gayer.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Got a big laugh there. What's your take?

TONY PERKINS: I don't think it's a laughing manner. I don't think this is something we should-- we should joke about. We are talking about individuals who feel very strongly one way or the other, and I think we should be civil, respectful, allowing all sides to have the debate. I'm glad that's what you're doing here this morning. But I-- but I think there's-- this is not something to-- to laugh about. It's not something to poke fun at other people about. This is a very serious issue. And I think it's very much like the abortion issue. You know, forty years into Roe v. Wade the issue is still not resolved and I think in part of this because when you go back to civil rights, civil rights are-- are rooted in natural law. Americans just don't see same-sex marriage being natural.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me go to Clay Aiken. You are from North Carolina. The day before the President spoke, as Tony Perkins says, your home state overwhelmingly voted to defeat an initiative that basically gave domestic partners the same rights as people who were married. You are openly gay. But did the President's statement you think pretty much ensure he's going to lose your home state of North Carolina?

CLAY AIKEN (Singer and Activist): No, I don't. I think a lot of people-- I-- I don't agree that it seals it up for him. While we certainly see, as you said, sixty percent of people say it won't matter.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Mm-Hm.

CLAY AIKEN: I think the people who say it will matter on either side of the equation probably were not going to vote for Obama or were going to vote for President Obama anyway. I think as people in North Carolina start to look at this amendment and realize what it's doing not just for same-sex couples but for straight couples as well, they're going to reject it. The polls in North Carolina show that over sixty percent of North Carolinians actually support some sort of recognition for same-sex couples, be it civil unions or domestic partnerships. And-- and it was sort of a political calculation on the part of some people in the general assembly to get this on the ballot. And as North Carolinians see what it's done, and what it will do, I think that they will-- they will support the fact that President Obama did speak out on principle. It wasn't a political calculation, you're right. Because, you know, he spoke out and he said this is what I believe. And I think that we-- we'd-- we'd like to see politicians speak out on principle a little bit more and not do things politically calculated.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Evan Wolfson, you head a group that's determined to get same-sex marriage legalized nationwide. Some activists are actually talking now about trying to move the convention from North Carolina because of that vote that they took. Do you support that?

EVAN WOLFSON (Freedom to Marry): No, I do not. I think what we need in North Carolina and throughout the country is exactly what the President exemplified, which is talking about the conversations he's had in his life with real gay people, real families. He talked so powerfully about the conversations he and First Lady Michelle Obama have had about it, and it-- and that they've had with their own daughters and they talked about how their daughters have classmates who can't-- and they can't understand why their classmate's families wouldn't be treated fairly. These are the kinds of conversations that are changing hearts and minds. We're going to see more of those conversations in North Carolina and the arc will continue. I think what the President did was show real moral leadership, and he also underscored that when we talk about real families, it turns out there is no good reason for denying those families. The golden rule of treating them as you would want to be treated, the very values he and Michelle are trying to teach their kids.