The National Organization for Marriage is targeting Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) ahead of today's New Hampsire Primary. The anti-gay group announced this week that it had set up a phone bank and had begun running television ads in the state.
Paul is not a gay rights hero, but he's far from NOM's preferred choice, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn). Paul and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman are the only two major GOP candidates that refused to sign NOM's “Marriage Pledge.”
Here's one of their commercials:
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The National Organization for Marriage sent out an email to its supporters last week asking for funds to help combat the reelection efforts of seven New York senators, all of whom voted to legalize same-sex marriage, in the upcoming 2012 elections. NOM has pledged $2 million to “oppose pro-SSM legislators” in the coming election.
NOM is targeting Republicans and Democrats who voted in favor of marriage equality as part of a three-phase plan to put the marriage debate back on the table.
Via NOM's website:
The National Organization for Marriage announced today the creation of a new campaign targeted at the King & Spalding law firm over their decision to abandon representation for the U.S. House of Representatives in the ongoing legal battles surrounding the Defense of Marriage Act.
NOM has put together the “We're There Until You Need Us” campaign where supporters are invited to sign a petition telling the law firm the decision to back out of representation is a mistake.
Not that I'm an expert on branding campaigns, but the name of NOM's latest anti-gay effort doesn't make a lot of sense. Who is there until you need them, NOM? King & Spalding?
We did it, Atlanta.
In August, hundreds of us braved soaring temperatures to stand across the street from the State Capitol, bearing witness against the National Organization for Marriage’s “Summer for Marriage” tour.
Of course, it was really a “Summer Against Gay Marriage” tour, complete with overwrought predictions of what would happen if (gasp) gay couples are legally allowed to say “I do.”
Alveda King — the niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and a disgrace to her uncle’s legacy of inclusion and civil rights — told the assembled crowd redefining marriage by allowing gay couples to legally wed amounts to “genocide” and will lead to the “extinction” of the human race.
Um, the assembled crowd of 35. And I generously counted their speakers, performers, volunteers and even the media who stood on their side of the street.
When the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage brought its “Summer of Marriage” tour to the Georgia Capitol in August 2010, more than 300 counter-protesters gathered across the street to show support for same-sex marriage.
The vibrant counter-protest was a stark contrast to the NOM rally, which drew only about 35 attendees, including the event’s organizers. Among them was Louis Marinelli, a self-described conservative Republican who spearheaded the tour.
On his website, Louis recently came out of his own closet with the revelation that he now supports civil marriage for gay couples.
A majority of Americans now support marriage equality for same-sex couples, according to a new poll released by CBS and the Washington Post. Some 53 percent of respondents said they support allowing same-sex couples to marry, up from 36 percent just five years ago.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, responded to the findings by questioning the wording of the questions in the poll.
“The only poll that counts is a free and fair vote on the part of the people,” Brown told the Post. “We’ve seen these biased polls time and time again — right before votes in which same-sex marriage is rejected. It’s absurd. The people of this country have not changed their opinion about marriage.”
Advocates for same-sex marriage disagreed.
Media personality and possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin responded today to the Department of Justice's announcement that the Obama administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.
Palin responded to a question from the National Organization for Marriage, which was posted on the group’s blog earlier today.
"I have always believed that marriage is between one man and one woman. Like the majority of Americans, I support the Defense of Marriage Act and find it appalling that the Obama administration decided not to defend this federal law which was enacted with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by a Democrat president. It's appalling, but not surprising that the president has flip-flopped on yet another issue from his stated position as a candidate to a seemingly opposite position once he was elected."
The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage blasted the Obama administration's monumental decision to refuse to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court after it determined the law unconstitutional.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday that the Department of Justice would not defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in two cases where that section of the law is currently under challenge. Section 3 classifies a "marriage" as a union between a man and a woman and a "spouse" as an opposite-sex person.
Brian Brown, NOM's president, called on the U.S. House of Representatives to “intervene to protect DOMA, and to tell the Obama administration they have to respect the limits on their power.”
Maggie Gallagher, chair of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, has been a busy lady this week. Yesterday, Gallagher testified before the Maryland Senate Committee on Judicial Proceedings and will also be in Rhode Island today testifying against same-sex unions.
"Marriage is the union of husband and wife for a reason: these are the only unions that can make new life and connect children in love to their mom and dad,” Gallagher said during her testimony yesterday. “As so many pro-gay marriage voices testified at this very hearing, gay marriage is grounded in the belief that this view of marriage is like objections to interracial marriage — something that should be discarded in law, culture and society."
It’s nice to see Gallagher still using the failed argument that gay marriage will somehow prevent straight couples from having children.