Though Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry says he opposes legalizing same-sex marriage, critics are pointing to the candidate's radical statements and writings in favor of homosexual marriage and claim this is one more divisive issue on which Kerry is attempting to play to both sides in an election year. ... In a 1996 column for the homosexual publication the Advocate, Kerry slammed the act, known as DOMA, calling it "as unconstitutional and unnecessary as it is mean-spirited and malicious."... Kerry even tied in his Vietnam service, lamenting "when the Senate debated the outrageous ban on gays in the military."