Washington, D.C., February 8, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is concerned by the comments of two Virginia legislators that compared a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the Holocaust.

In letters to Senator Janet Howell and Senator Mamie E. Locke, ADL expressed disappointment at the comparison.

"While we support Senators Locke and Howell in opposing this amendment, their linkage of the efforts to impose such a ban to the racial policies of the Nazis is insensitive and inaccurate," said David C. Friedman, Director of ADL's Washington, D.C. Regional Office. "We call upon them to refrain from using Holocaust imagery in the future."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.