Governor Lynch’s address to Tim Gill’s Political OutGiving conference this spring is creating quite a stir in New Hampshire – just in time for the Summer for Marriage Tour coming to Manchester.

Lynch lauded by national gay rights advocates
Manchester Union-Leader, July 13, 2010
Staff Report

CONCORD —Gov. John Lynch’s support for a same-sex marriage law in New Hampshire earned him a featured position at a recent private meeting of national leaders and donors in the gay community.

The Washington Blade has reported that Lynch was among four governors and several other elected officials who attended “a closed-door conference of wealthy LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) political donors” in mid-May in Chicago. The conference was known as “Political OutGiving,” described by the Blade as “a highly confidential event for a network of more than 200 big-stakes LGBT contributors to political campaigns.”

. . .
The conservative National Organization for Marriage earlier this year spent about $200,000 on television ads claiming that “Lynch lied” on several issues, including samesex marriage, by signing the bill into law after saying in a 2006 gubernatorial debate that “I do not support gay marriage.”

Lynch said in April he was “disgusted” with the ad and accused the out-of-state group of “meddling.” The “LynchLeads” site and a related television ad were created in response.

NOM to be in Manchester

NOM will be in Manchester on Thursday as part of a “Summer for Marriage: One Man-One Woman Tour” rally at City Hall Plaza, presumably to continue to criticize Lynch.

According to a media advisory, “The tour covers many of the key battleground states in the ongoing fight to protect and preserve marriage as one man and one woman.”

The New Hampshire-based self-described “pro-family” Cornerstone Action, the political arm of Cornerstone Policy Research, e-mailed supporters yesterday criticizing Lynch’s attendance at the gay leaders meeting and asking for donations to “keep the liberals away.”

It also asks supporters to call Lynch’s office “and tell him how hypocritical it is for him to denounce the involvement of NOM in New Hampshire one month, only to fly out to Chicago one month later to meet with the nation’s wealthiest gay donors!”

The Cornerstone group also filed a right-to-know request with the governor’s office asking for “all correspondence, invitations and travel records between Lynch and his staff related to his meeting in Chicago with Tim Gill.”

Group executive director Kevin Smith said Lynch “has officially sold out to the radical gay lobby” by attending the meeting “presumably to beg for money for his fledgling campaign.” . . .