NOM To Board Of Directors: "Drive A Wedge Between Gays And Blacks"

Some background:  NOM (the National Organization for Marriage) was recently sued in Maine for violating campaign finance laws.  NOM contended that they were not a political organization, and, as such, were not required to disclose campaign and financial information.  The First Circuit Court disagreed.

NOM appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case yesterday afternoon.  When that happened, NOM was legally required to make certain information public, such as reports to their board of directors.

The sixteen pages released yesterday show evidence of the organization's mission to pit African-Americans, Latinos, and the LGBT community against each other.  All the while, straight white bigots just sit back and watch it all unfold.  On page 13 of the 2008-2009 report to their board of directors, under a heading called "Not a Civil Right Project", it states the following:

"The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key Democratic constituencies.  Find, energize, equip and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots.  No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party."

JAZZ HANDS...

Immediately upon reading this, Ken Hutcherson came to mind.   The vehemently anti-gay pastor from Kirkland, Washington, was one of the most vocal opponents to marriage equality in Washington state.  During one debate on the issue, he even went so far as to say that marriage equality would lead to legalized horse fucking.

"If this law is passed, what is going to happen? Now ask your guests in the studio. Do they believe that if they change the definition of marriage being between one man and one woman, what is going to stop two men one woman, two women one man, one man against a horse, one many with a boy, one man with anything?"

 Also on page 13 of the report, is their strategy regarding the Latino community.  It involves using Spanish language ads to convince listeners that their "assimilation" into American culture is not complete, unless they're against marriage equality.

"Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values? We must interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity - a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation."

That's right folks...You're not really an American, unless you're an intolerant bigot.  In case you didn't know, these three people are at the forefront of American culture.  They're trendsetters.

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and NOM's Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown

Another interesting tidbit from the report is that it confirms, once and for all, the partnership between NOM and the Mormon church.  Under the section "Donor Protection Litigation", it points out the steps that NOM has taken to support (and publicly shield) the LDS establishment from protests and media attention brought upon them in the wake of Prop 8.

There is also a section called "Sideswiping Obama".  The mission of this "project" is especially telling:

"Expose Obama as a social radical.  Develop side issues to weaken pro-gay marriage political leaders and parties and develop an activist base of socially conservative and Christian voters.  Raise such issues as pornography, protection of children, and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at a federal level."

Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Calling Mr. Santorum.

Rick Santorum has publicly vowed to ban the distribution of "hardcore" pornography on the internet, by mail, and in stores.  He has claimed that "the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families".  He also incorrectly attests that pornography causes "profound brain changes" and leads to violence against women, statements which no evidence has not shown.


Could the National Organization for Marriage have Rick Santorum in their pocket?  He is, possibly, the most vocal politician today in regards to contraception use being against our "religious freedoms".  


The notions presented in yesterday's documents are disturbing, to say the least.  Even more unsettling is the fact that many of this country's most powerful individuals support the ideologies of this disgusting organization.

This Is How NOM Publishes A Baby Announcement

On September 30th, Jared Polis, a gay Congressman from Colorado, and his partner, Marlon Reis, announced the birth of their son, Caspian.  No information was disclosed as to the baby's mother, because, honestly, it's no one's business.  This was a notable birth announcement, in that Polis became the first openly gay parent in Congress.  The announcement from Polis and Reis read as follows:

"Marlon & Jared are proud to announce the arrival of Caspian Julius: 8 pounds 12 ounces, Born September 30th 2011

Baby and parents are doing well, baby has learned to cry already!

No gifts please, just nice thoughts for Caspian, humankind, the planet, and the universe!"

Many news websites and political blogs noted the birth.  All reported the news positively.  Many offered their congratulations and well wishes.  After all, how is the birth of a beautiful, healthy baby boy a negative thing in this world?

If you were to believe the news from the National Organization for Marriage, you would think that Caspian's birth was a harbinger of the end of the world.  This was their headline, announcing the baby's birth:

What a horrible way to spin the birth of a child.  This little boy is going to have two parents, in a secure, stable home, that love him.  And, simply because those parents are both male, NOM automatically considers him "at risk" or "disadvantaged".  This is nothing less than hate speech, and it was specifically targeted at Polis.

Rep. Polis is the co-sponsor of the Every Child Deserves A Family Act.  The act "bans discrimination in adoption or foster care placement based on the sexual orientation, marital status or gender identity of the potential parent, or the sexual orientation or gender identity of the child".

It's a wonder they didn't call little Caspian the Anti-Christ.

Marriage Bigots Miss Out On $100K Matching Donation

On June 24th, the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay group that some say has ties to the Mormon church, raised an ambitious fund-raising challenge to their supporters.  For every new Facebook like, Twitter follower, and new text supporter they receive, an anonymous donor would donate one dollar up to $100,000.  The deadline for new supporters was today, September 1st.

I never thought that they would hit $100,000, but even I didn't think their efforts would be this pathetic.

Jeremy over at Good as You has been keeping track of NOM's stats over the last couple of months, and the results are just sad.  931 Facebook likes and 298 Twitter followers.  That's $1,229.00, people.  Unless NOM received 98,771 text messages in the span of two months and six days, it's highly unlikely that they received the $100,000 donation from their "anonymous donor".  That is, if there was an anonymous donor in the first place.  How much would you like to wager that this was a clever ploy to try to garner more support for their organization?

I would like to see their spin on this.

Fox News' Reaction To The Obama Administration's DOMA Announcement

As some of you may have read, the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, released a statement yesterday, announcing that the federal government will no longer defend Section 3 of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) in court.  Here is an excerpt from the announcement:

After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.

Consequently, the Department will not defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA as applied to same-sex married couples in the two cases filed in the Second Circuit. We will, however, remain parties to the cases and continue to represent the interests of the United States throughout the litigation. I have informed Members of Congress of this decision, so Members who wish to defend the statute may pursue that option. The Department will also work closely with the courts to ensure that Congress has a full and fair opportunity to participate in pending litigation.

Furthermore, pursuant to the President's instructions, and upon further notification to Congress, I will instruct Department attorneys to advise courts in other pending DOMA litigation of the President's and my conclusions that a heightened standard should apply, that Section 3 is unconstitutional under that standard and that the Department will cease defense of Section 3.

House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) issued the following statement:

"While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the President will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation." 

I happen to have my Republican/Democrat translation dictionary handy.  The Democratic translation is as follows:

"While Republicans want Washington to focus on redefining rape, intruding on women's reproductive rights, reversing gay rights in states across the nation, and eliminating collective bargaining rights in the Midwest, the Muslim that you people voted into office will have to explain why he isn't coddling old, rich, straight, white men and NASCAR fans like Dubya used to."

As you could imagine, Fox News went ape shit.  Just take a look at Megyn Kelly's face as she is reporting the announcement.  She looks like she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  Of all people for them to talk to on air, Maggie Gallagher, the head of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).  NOM was started with funding by the Mormon church in 2007 as an organization to spearhead the campaign against Prop. 8 in California.  The Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's leading experts in hate crimes and hate and extremist organizations, officially lists NOM as a "hate group".  This is epic:



Then, later in her show, she had political commentator Monica Crowley on as a guest.  Crowley called the President, "Mubarak Obama".  Just watch:



Guess that answers the question why 72% of Republican primary voters think Obama is a Muslim or isn't sure.  You know Fox News...."fair and balanced".

NOM Website Goes Gay Friendly...Accidentally

The Mormon backed National Organization for Marriage learned a valuable lesson:  When you are hot linking someone's cartoon onto a hate group's website, make sure they are ideologically in the same ballpark as you.

Yesterday morning, Zach Weiner posted the following cartoon for SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoon):

It was soon posted on NOM's main website.  When Mr. Weiner got wind that his cartoon was being used on a website for a hate group that tirelessly campaigns against gay rights, he replaced the image on his site.  NOM's website was showing the following for most of the day yesterday before it was noticed and changed:

Talk about embarrassing.  Oops.