By now, you've heard all about the incredible display of intolerance from supporters of gay marriage.
They've come to our peaceful marriage rallies in city after city to harass and intimidate us. We've seen men harass a nursing mother, refusing her request to feed her children in private and instead stare at her and block her ability to watch our rally from a safe distance. We've seen protestors draped in the rainbow flag storm the stage and scream, red-faced into the microphone to prevent our speakers from talking. We've seen them bait a five year old child, asking her if she's being raised by her mother to be a bigot. We've even heard a gay marriage supporter threaten to kidnap a child in attendance at a rally.
I thought I had heard and seen it all, but the radicals reached a new low yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin. NOM and its supporters gathered peacefully in Madison to pray for marriage and to stand in support of marriage remaining a sacred union between men and women.
We were honored to have Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison address the crowd. Bishop Morlino spoke of the need to love one another even as we disagree on the issue of same-sex marriage. Yet when he led the crowd in the Lord's Prayer, the gay marriage radicals screamed and booed him.
This is the face of intolerance. Isn't it something when people who so loudly demand tolerance from everybody else, show such intolerance for those who simply wish to pray to God for the preservation of His sacred institution?
The NOM Summer for Marriage Tour started out as a simple exercise to bring together supporters of marriage across the country to rally in support of an institution that we hold dear, something that has served society well since before there even was a society. And we've done that with hundreds of supporters across the country joining our tour, and tens of thousands joining our bus tour online.
But something else has happened along the way -- the people of America are seeing for the first time with their own eyes how radical our opponents truly are. These people who scream at our supporters, mock priests, taunt children and boo the Lord's Prayer are the very same people who, with a straight face, promise that they would never force their values on us if America would only legalize gay marriage.
Their lies have been laid bare for the world to see. And the world is watching it backfire on them. Last week alone, over 1.3 million people read about the gay radicals on Facebook. Millions more watched news reports and read about their antics in various news publications. Today in St. Paul, we had one of our largest rallies to date, with between 200 and 250 supporters coming out to stand for marriage. And rather than the protests dampening turnout, I've lost count how many people have come up to me to say that they came to the rally because they saw the videos of the protestors and are more determined than ever to stand up for marriage.
To say that the display of anger and intolerance has been a public relations disaster for the gay marriage movement is the understatement of the century. That's why two gay marriage groups yesterday attempted embarrassing efforts at spin control to try to deflect the public's attention away from what is happening at the marriage rallies.
Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign issued a statement claiming the Summer for Marriage tour was an elaborate stunt designed to draw lawful protestors who are wrongly being portrayed by made-up stories of as harassment. Their problem, of course, is the video evidence that we have of screaming gay marriage radicals storming the podium and harassing nursing mothers and booing a Catholic Bishop leading a group in the Lord's Prayer.
Do these look like "made up stories of harassment" to you? Unfortunately for the Human Rights Campaign, these are the faces of what the future will look like for anyone who opposes same-sex marriage. Groups like HRC and their supporters will use the full force of the law -- lawsuits, legislation, regulations and even public intimidation and harassment -- to force their vision and values on the American people. This is becoming more and more clear to America with every passing tour stop.
The group "Freedom to Marry"issued their own statement yesterday, but they apparently forgot to coordinate their message of the day with HRC. Instead of accusing us of "made up stories of harassment" this group showed a repulsive picture of someone whose sign featured a noose, implying that homosexuals should be put to death. They went on to "demand" that NOM repudiate this"incitement to violence." We'd treat this call seriously if it weren't such a contrived stunt.
First of all, NOM has already repudiated this display of intolerance -- and did so on the spot (not through a press release). We demanded this individual to take down his sign, because it was inconsistent with NOM's aims, methods, and message: We come together in love to support marriage as one man and one woman.
Second, at every rally we make it clear that our fight is not with gay Americans, it is with a bad idea. The Lord teaches us that we are to love all His children. We approach the issue of marriage from the perspective of love. You can watch video of NOM's Chair, Maggie Gallagher, making this point here.
Our opponents are becoming more and more desperate as they watch their carefully scripted narrative of same-sex marriage crumble before the eyes of the American people.
We need your help to continue our successful Summer for Marriage tour and to continue to publicize this issue. If the tour is coming to a city near you, please come to show your support. We need all our supporters to rally around the cause, especially in these trying times. Visit www.marriagetour2010.com for all the latest tour information.
We also need your financial help to continue the tour. This is a costly and difficult tour to organize and implement. We have to feed, house and transport staff and volunteers in nearly two-dozen cities -- not to mention the cost of preparing, securing and keeping the bus and support vehicles on the road for the month-long tour. Please make a special contribution today to enable us to bear all the expenses of this historic tour.
There's no doubt that God is working a wondrous thing with the Summer for Marriage tour. We are changing hearts and minds across America. People are rallying to our side. Please keep us in your prayers, and remember us with a financial gift as well.
You are correct: this is a conflict over different ideas.
The marriage idea versus the SSM idea.
And you are correct that the SSM idea is a bad one. But it is propped up with heavy doses of emotionalism. The SSM campaign depends greatly on pushing those emotional buttons so I blame their leadership for the behavior of these anti-rally protestors. The individuals are at fault, yes, but they are acting in accord with the emotinalism that fuels the SSM campaign's demand that a bad idea be imposed on all of society.
2 Comments
Thank you NOM for standing up for families for mothers and fathers, religious freedom and morality.
You are correct: this is a conflict over different ideas.
The marriage idea versus the SSM idea.
And you are correct that the SSM idea is a bad one. But it is propped up with heavy doses of emotionalism. The SSM campaign depends greatly on pushing those emotional buttons so I blame their leadership for the behavior of these anti-rally protestors. The individuals are at fault, yes, but they are acting in accord with the emotinalism that fuels the SSM campaign's demand that a bad idea be imposed on all of society.