In early 2003 Ellison was among several DFL legislators who filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Arlon Lindner (R-Corcoran) representing House District 33A.
They feared that the "Full Faith and Credit Clause" of the United States Constitution would require this, despite the Federal Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996.
...I don't know of any [heterosexual] couple, where they've been faithful to each other, a man and a woman, has any fear of any sexually transmitted disease unless they have to get a blood transfusion.
In an e-mail to House members he stated "As a Christian, I am offended that we would have the Dalai Lama come and speak to a joint meeting of our Minnesota Legislature.
He claims to be a god-king, a leader of the Buddha religion, which historically has been considered a cult because of its anti-Biblical teachings concerning the one true Holy God, Creator of Heaven and earth and His Son, Jesus Christ.
His first complaint stemmed from a May 2000 incident after the Republican Party took control of the House and some members felt that the prayers opening the session were becoming too sectarian.
"For many, things went too far when House leaders recently brought in a choir to open the day's session with a musical rendition of the Apostles' Creed.
"[10] Linder's comments not only drew a response from members of the DFL, but also from Hinda Kibort, an 82-year-old holocaust survivor who had lived in a concentration camp in Germany from 1941 to 1945.
[4] On the House floor he said, "[w]hat I am trying to prevent is the holocaust of our children getting STDs, AIDS, and various other diseases that are going to affect their lives.
With respect to the accuracy of his claims that gays weren't targeted via death camps, Lindner said he was continuing his "research " on the issue.
[11] Ellison, one of only two African-American state lawmakers at the time (the other being Rep. Neva Walker of District 61B), became the spokesman of the DFL group that filed with the Ethics Committee against Lindner.
Besides Ellison the group consisted of Representatives Karen Clark, Frank Hornstein (whose mother is a Holocaust survivor), Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Neva Walker, Lyndon Carlson, Ron Latz, and House Minority Leader Matt Entenza.
Ellison's group exhibited letters from out-of-state residents who said they cancelled vacation plans in Minnesota after learning of Lindner's comments.
"[13] The Session Weekly reported "'The fact of the matter is his conduct calls for discipline,' said Ellison, who added that a censure penalty does not prohibit Lindner from saying what he believes.
'"[13] Ellison told Minnesota Public Radio "That question mark sitting over this building is whether we represent all the people of this state or not.
"[9] In the middle of the controversy about Lindner's remarks his lawyer sent a routine legal request for discovery to Rep. Neva Walker, an African-American DFL member from Minneapolis.
I can tell you that the person typing the letter apparently looked at the file and put the words together wrong [from a form that listed her name by her race]."
The lawyer said "Basically, it's a tempest in a teapot," he said, adding that "some people are just hypersensitive if from a simple mistake they can call someone a racist."
"[14] On March 12, 2003 it was reported that then-US Senator Norm Coleman, who is Jewish, was calling on his fellow Minnesota Republicans to "reject" Lindner's "deplorable and historically inaccurate" view on the Holocaust.
[16] Lindner (who originally came to Minnesota from Texas to earn his Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis[17]) stressed his theological opposition to harming Jews, "As a Christian who believes the Bible is true, there has always been a special place in my heart and life for God's words about the Jewish people.
[6] Lindner's bill to remove state human rights protection for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people did not get a committee hearing and was never brought up for a vote in the House.
"[11]) In late 2003 in response to the controversy over Lindner's comments the United States Holocaust Museum arranged for an unscheduled stop in Minneapolis for its "Nazi Persecutions of Homosexuals 1933-1945".
The exhibit focused on Paragraph 175 of the German penal code (which banned sexual intimacy between members of the same gender) and "describes a purposeful effort by the Nazis that resulted in about 100,000 arrests, 50,000 imprisonments, an untold number of deaths in concentration camps and such things as forced castrations".
[20] While one news service claimed Lindner refused to attend[10] another reported that he accepted "an invitation to tour the exhibition with Stephen Silberfarb, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas" and said he was "looking forward to it".
In that interview he claimed that what he had been misunderstood during the whole controversy "I said I didn't believe that homosexuals were persecuted to the same extent that Jewish people were.
Joyce Peppin who received the endorsement said it was because Lindner was "a flawed messenger for the conservative agenda...You can't change hearts and minds when you are constantly offending people".
They wrote "Ellison acted as the lawyer for the House DFL caucus in an ethics proceeding against former representative Arlon Lindner, who contended that gays were not victims of Nazi oppression in the Holocaust.
Ellison understands the importance of guarding against Holocaust denial and revisionism, and links the lessons of the Shoah to more recent cases of genocide in Rwanda and Darfur.
In his press release Ellison was outraged "on two counts – that Rumsfeld's comments are deeply un-American in their disrespect for the right of free speech, and are equally offensive for trivializing the evil of the Nazi regime, which manifested itself most tragically in the Holocaust of Jews and many others.
...As one of the leaders in the Minnesota House in the fight to censure then- Representative Arlon Lindner for remarks that were anti-Semitic, homophobic and denied aspects of the Holocaust, I take this comparison personally.