National Organization for Marriage Are Despicable Bastards

[Flagg]

MSNBC

Anti-same-sex marriage group’s racial wedge strategy revealed

By NBC’s Barbara Raab

The blogosphere is abuzz with the story that broke last night, when the Human Rights Campaign released internal memos from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's largest and most visible anti-same sex-marriage group, calling for the use of a racial wedge strategy to fight campaigns for marriage equality.

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks -- two key Democratic constituencies,” one of the NOM memos says.

“The documents, marked “confidential,” were unsealed yesterday afternoon in Maine by court order, as part of that state’s ongoing ethics investigation into NOM’s campaign finances.

The memo spells out specific steps to enact, including:

Find, equip, energize 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…”

Here is an excerpt on NOM’s Hispanic strategy:

"The Latino vote in America is a key swing vote, and will be so even more so in the future, both because of demographic growth and inherent uncertainty: 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."

NOM also spells out its plans for the 2012 presidential election:

"From a political angle," the NOM document says, "this strategy will require electing a pro-marriage President in 2012." Strategies for defeating, ("sideswiping," as the document calls it) President Obama include "expose Obama as a social radical," and "raise such issues as pornography, protection of children, and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at the federal level."

NOM is a 501(c)3 and cannot endorse presidential candidates, but the former chairwoman of NOM’s board, Maggie Gallagher, endorsed Santorum in January.

Public opinion has moved considerably in the three years since the memos were drafted. The most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (conducted Feb. 29 through March 3) shows a plurality favors same-sex marriage -- 49 percent say so versus 40 percent who oppose. That's a reversal from 41-49 percent in October 2009.

Among African Americans, a majority (50 percent) said they were in favor (41 were opposed). That's a big change from October 2009, when just a third (32 percent) were in favor and a majority (53 percent) were opposed. Among Hispanics, in the most recent poll, 55 percent said they were in favor, 30 percent said they were against. That's also a change from October 2009, when the margin was tighter (45-40 favor to oppose).

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign -- which supports efforts to legalize same-sex marriage -- criticized NOM. “Nothing beats hearing from the horse’s mouth exactly how callous and extremist this group really is,” Solmonese said in a statement.

NOM posted a statement on its website today, saying it is "proud of [its] strong record on minority partnerships."

It added: “Gay marriage advocates have attempted to portray same-sex marriage as a civil right, but the voices of these and many other leaders have provided powerful witness that this claim is patently false. Gay marriage is not a civil right, and we will continue to point this out in written materials such as those released in Maine. We proudly bring together people of different races, creeds and colors to fight for our most fundamental institution: marriage.”

NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this report.

Now that we know their strategy hopefully it can be countered.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

If that's not despicable enough, there's also the fact they also included in their strategy to try to exploit kids of gay parents to take away marriage rights: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/d ... ay-parents

On the bright side, the document also details key strategical goals, which failed to materialize for them - most notably their attempts to stop marriage equality in New York and reversing it in Iowa and New Hampshire.

[Zaune]

Anyone else thinking that "National Organisation for Weddings" is a more fitting title? I mean, my father is on spouse number 3 now, but only for some complicated legal or tax reason (I forget the details) and after living together with his partner for almost a decade. Were they more married somehow for a five-minute civil ceremony in a hotel? Marriage, as far as I'm concerned, is just a state of mind.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Anyone else thinking that "National Organisation for Weddings" is a more fitting title? I mean, my father is on spouse number 3 now, but only for some complicated legal or tax reason (I forget the details) and after living together with his partner for almost a decade. Were they more married somehow for a five-minute civil ceremony in a hotel? Marriage, as far as I'm concerned, is just a state of mind.

Well, they couldn't care less if same-sex couples started holding their own wedding ceremonies. All their work is revolved around civil marriages, which are legally binding contracts.

[SpaceMarine93]

Frankly, considering all the behavior I saw of those who oppose gay marriage, the NOM strategy outlined in the memo didn't surprise me one bit.

On the agenda, how do we ACTUALLY stop their efforts? Its not like enough people in America would actually read the memoes and actually care enough to discredit the NOM, swing to side of the gay marriage or change anything at all. The way I see it, even with the NOM memo out, it's business as usual.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Frankly, considering all the behavior I saw of those who oppose gay marriage, the NOM strategy outlined in the memo didn't surprise me one bit.

On the agenda, how do we ACTUALLY stop their efforts? Its not like enough people in America would actually read the memoes and actually care enough to discredit the NOM, swing to side of the gay marriage or change anything at all. The way I see it, even with the NOM memo out, it's business as usual.

You're right in that it doesn't really reveal anything too shocking about their strategies aside from the fact that they're internally candid about their despicable tactics (which we can use to our advantage). But if the last 2-3 years has taught us anything, it's that the strategies implemented by marriage equality advocates currently are working more effectively than theirs. After a number of 2009/2010 setbacks in Maine, New York, New Jersey and Maryland, a lot of organizations such as HRC and Freedom to Marry have adapted and it showed - particularly in New York last year.

The irony of it all is that the more people talk about the issue, the faster they're going to move to our side. Dialogue fosters thought and the marriage equality issue is so logically one-sided that it's hard to overtime deny that NOM is dead wrong. So in an attempt to mislead African Americans and Latinos with their propaganda, NOM is actually opening up the opportunity for us to engage in constant dialogue about marriage equality. As long as we keep pushing our case and engaging them with our own personal stories and convictions, we'll beat them at their own game in the long run.

[Guardsman Bass]

Their opposition to public disclosure of donations in the referendum campaigns is another good sign as well. It shows that they're worried potential donors might be too ashamed to openly donate to anti-gay marriage causes, so they have to keep them in secrecy.

[SpaceMarine93]

Frankly, considering all the behavior I saw of those who oppose gay marriage, the NOM strategy outlined in the memo didn't surprise me one bit.

On the agenda, how do we ACTUALLY stop their efforts? Its not like enough people in America would actually read the memoes and actually care enough to discredit the NOM, swing to side of the gay marriage or change anything at all. The way I see it, even with the NOM memo out, it's business as usual.

You're right in that it doesn't really reveal anything too shocking about their strategies aside from the fact that they're internally candid about their despicable tactics (which we can use to our advantage). But if the last 2-3 years has taught us anything, it's that the strategies implemented by marriage equality advocates currently are working more effectively than theirs. After a number of 2009/2010 setbacks in Maine, New York, New Jersey and Maryland, a lot of organizations such as HRC and Freedom to Marry have adapted and it showed - particularly in New York last year.

The irony of it all is that the more people talk about the issue, the faster they're going to move to our side. Dialogue fosters thought and the marriage equality issue is so logically one-sided that it's hard to overtime deny that NOM is dead wrong. So in an attempt to mislead African Americans and Latinos with their propaganda, NOM is actually opening up the opportunity for us to engage in constant dialogue about marriage equality. As long as we keep pushing our case and engaging them with our own personal stories and convictions, we'll beat them at their own game in the long run.

That's the problem - if we are TOO successful and push the anti-gay movement to the brink, I think they might resort to extreme, cheating, completely ruthless and devious methods to end gay marriage once and for all e.g. call for constitutional amendment against homosexuality, then blackmail the vote counting organization to report the figures in their favor then destroy the evidence, winning the entire struggle in one blow (I'm exaggerating, of course, but you get the picture).

[LaCroix]

That's the problem - if we are TOO successful and push the anti-gay movement to the brink, I think they might resort to extreme, cheating, completely ruthless and devious methods to end gay marriage once and for all e.g. call for constitutional amendment against homosexuality, then blackmail the vote counting organization to report the figures in their favor then destroy the evidence, winning the entire struggle in one blow (I'm exaggerating, of course, but you get the picture).

Take a deeep breath and relax... They haven't even built their volcano island lair, yet!

[Pint0 Xtreme]

That's the problem - if we are TOO successful and push the anti-gay movement to the brink, I think they might resort to extreme, cheating, completely ruthless and devious methods to end gay marriage once and for all e.g. call for constitutional amendment against homosexuality, then blackmail the vote counting organization to report the figures in their favor then destroy the evidence, winning the entire struggle in one blow (I'm exaggerating, of course, but you get the picture).

The best chance they had in winning in a single blow was in 2003/2004 where the Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and we had a sitting president that personally endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban marriage for same-sex couples. Yet, they failed to get 2/3rd of either chamber to approve it. They'd have a much harder time getting 3/4ths of the states to ratify it. I'm personally not that concerned about the prospects of a constitutional amendment as they already failed to get it done in the past and it's only much, much harder for them to get it done now.