I don't know what being anti-trans has to do with marriage, except being a fight they haven't totally lost… yet. #March4Marriage— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 25, 2016
By @sydneyp1234's count, there are 237 people at #March4Marriage, including speakers, infants, journalists (like us), and curious onlookers.— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 25, 2016
I just warned some oncoming tourists, "Watch out! There's a whole lot of bigots coming through!" #March4Marriage— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 25, 2016
The folks over at the National Organization for Marriage have the odd idea that they are relevant in some way today.
They’ve launched a new attack ad, titled “Dump Trump,” directed at GOP front-runner Donald Trump that basically says the Trumpster doesn’t hate on gays enough.
In an email (that includes at least NINE requests for donations), NOM president Brian Brown writes:
As the ad makes clear, when Donald Trump quit on the fight for marriage, he quit on South Carolina and over 50 million voters across the nation who cast ballots defining marriage as one man and one woman. The ad urges South Carolinians to “Dump Trump.”
Keep in mind that the marriage amendment passed in South Carolina with 78% of the overall vote. However, it likely got upwards of 90% of the vote among Republicans who will be voting for president on February 20th. Clearly, the ad could cause some serious damage to the Trump campaign and thus help propel forward other pro-marriage candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz.
Virulently anti-gay Brian Brown, president of the ironically named National Organization for Marriage, is super-mad y’all.
Brown is upset (and begging for money) because Jim Obergefell will be sitting with the First Lady at tonight’s State of the Union address.
As you probably know, Obergefell was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to the historic marriage equality decision by SCOTUS last summer.
Via press release:
“It’s an outrage that President Obama is honoring the extermination of true marriage in our nation’s laws as a result of an anti-constitutional, illegitimate ruling of the US Supreme Court,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president.
“President Obama is trying to honor something that is completely dishonorable because it strips from the law the truth of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and substitutes a fiction from the left that marriage can be anything you want it to be.”
I wasn’t aware that heterosexual marriage is now “exterminated?”
Of course, what he’s really mad about is his six-figure annual salary is about to go bye-bye.
After a five year legal battle, and paying a record $50,000 fine, the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage has finally handed over it’s donor list as ordered by the courts to the Maine Ethics Commission.
In 2009, the organization funneled over $2 million to the anti-gay Stand for Marriage Maine political action committee, which supported a referendum to overturn a same-sex marriage law passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Baldacci.
A later referendum in 2012 reinstated marriage equality.
NOM has tried to by-pass state campaign finance laws regarding the 2009 campaign, and has refused to file their donor list.
Until now. Having run out of options to avoid the inevitable, NOM has given up.
The donor list includes a mix of in- and out-of-state donors who gave NOM between $50,000 and $750,000 in individual donations. The largest donor was Sean Fieler of New York City, who is the president of Chiaroscuro Foundation and gave a total of $1.25 million.
The only donor listed from Maine was Richard Kurtz of Cape Elizabeth, who gave $50,000. There are only six names on the list, plus about $5,300 of “unitemized contributions.”
That’s quite the “national” organization, huh? Only SIX donors.
And only one from Maine.
Gee, Brian Brown, I can’t imagine why there were all those calls of “out of state interference.”
The virulently anti-gay National Organization for Marriage has lost yet again in it’s efforts to hide their donor list from their campaign against marriage equality in Maine.
Maine’s ethics commission fined the National Organization for Marriage $50,250 last year for violating the state’s campaign finance laws and ordered it to file a campaign finance report that would reveal who supported the 2009 referendum that struck down Maine’s gay marriage law.
The group sought to delay filing of the report, pending the outcome of its appeal in court of the commission’s decision.
But the Maine Supreme Court denied that request Tuesday, saying it’s unlikely that NOM will be successful in its appeal.
Brian Brown, president of the group, said he believes NOM is being unfairly targeted because of its views on marriage.
The anti-same-sex marriage group, National Organization for Marriage, is now officially dying “the ugly death.”
The head of the group – Bryan Brown – sends out this money beg today via email, trying desperately to hang on to his six figure salary for a job that is now woefully obsolete.
You see, Brown and his bigoted cronies have “other elements of our plan to go forward,” he just won’t tell you what they are.
“If you believe that our next President of the United States must be a champion for true marriage, then we ask you to donate today so that we can make this a reality in the future.
“There are other elements of our plan to go forward, and I will discuss these in future communications.
“For now, rest assured that NOM is in this fight for the long haul, and we trust you will be there with us. This is a dark day, but we are not defeated.
“Indeed, we have been reenergized and are more determined than ever to reverse this injustice and restore God’s institution of marriage to its proper place in American law and culture. Our opponents are now counting on you to give up, and so is a majority of the US Supreme Court.
“Remember it was Justice Ginsburg who violated judicial ethics to comment publicly that the American people will easily accept this illegitimate decision. Please act today to prove her wrong!
“Your contribution of $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 or more will be an investment in the next phase of this struggle and allow us to begin to fight back and ultimately reverse this terrible decision.”
Folks have reached out asking if the haters can reverse the Supreme Court’s historic ruling.
Basically, that would need the haters to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
THAT would require either a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress OR a two-thirds vote by a national convention of states (that would be 34 today) OR by a total of three-fourths (38) of the individual state legislatures ratifying said amendment.
• The ironically named National Organization for Marriage asks all GOP presidential candidates to sign a pledge to promising to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
• After Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” debacle only 32% of voters support his re-election.
The National Organization for Marriage’s hate march was held today in Washington, D.C., and as expected it was a sad, embarrassing failure for the virulently anti-gay group.
I’m not inclined to go into much detail about the event as it’s pretty much what you would imagine: just a few dozen haters cheering each other on pretending the rights of LGBTs to marry somehow infringes on their lives. Which, of course, they does not.
But I will share just this one clip from the hate speech that went on.
Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver stood before the crowd to say he would have “no choice” but to disobey such a “lawless” decision.
“As much as I’m an attorney and I respect the rule of law, I also respect the higher law. And when an earthly law collides with the higher law, we have no choice to obey the higher law.”
“Marriage is the union of a man and a woman,” he added. “As a policy matter, any other union says that God’s design is flawed. As a policy matter, any other union says that boys don’t need fathers and girls don’t need mothers.”
The “boys need fathers” and “girls need mothers” line is supposed to argue that marriage HAS to be between a man and a woman because “children.”
What Staver and the rest of his ilk never address is that if marriage is about children, why do they only attack same-sex marriage? They never argue that infertile couples shouldn’t marry. Or that seniors who marry past child-bearing years shouldn’t adopt.
It’s only the gays.
The good news is this: Today was most probably the last Hate March NOM will ever hold as the Supreme Court will most probably rule on the issue of same-sex marriage by the end of June.
It’s fascinating to read this email from Brian Brown of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, where he begs for money to keep funding his losing fight against same-sex marriage.
It’s honestly like he’s become an out of touch idiot. From today’s email:
“Support for same-sex marriage has dropped over the past year by six percentage points, while opposition has increased. In fact, more voters are opposed to same-sex ‘marriage’ (44%) than are in favor of it (42%).
“This dramatic change in public opinion comes as activist judges throughout the country have been working overtime to redefine marriage in direct opposition to the decision of over fifty million voters.
“While the media seems utterly baffled by these findings — unable to process them and therefore report on them — we are not surprised in the least.
“Please make plans for joining us for the March for Marriage this year as we make the case for marriage. Three days after the justices of the Supreme Court see the outpouring of support for marriage, they will hear oral argument in the case that could shape the legal definition of marriage in America for years to come.
“In the mean time, please consider making a generous donation to support our efforts to organize and promote this critical event. We have a great deal of work to do and nobody to turn to for help except for loyal supporters like you.”
As the rest of the world knows – support for marriage equality has seen a sharp increase over the past few years. That is a fact.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (not some fly-by-night outfit) showed support rising to 59% for same-sex marriage. A fact Brian Brown simply chooses to ignore.
