Palin describes herself as pro-life and against same-sex marriage, although she claims to have good friends who are gay. In 2006 while running for governor, she said she would support a ballot initiative that denied benefits to same-sex couples, but her first veto as governor shot down such a bill. (Palin said she vetoed it because the Alaska Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional, not because she supports gay-marriage rights.) She is Christian and pro-life, but also a supporter of birth control: she's a member of Feminists For Life (FFL), an anti-abortion, pro-contraception organization. In 2002, she wrote a letter to FFL stating that she had "adamantly supported our cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion." She supports the teaching of creationism in public schools, alongside evolution. She is also a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association and supports the constitutional right to bear arms.