Dear Friends of Marriage,

This morning, the news is sad.

The Iowa state supreme court summarily rejected that state's marriage laws and imposed same-sex marriage.

As I told the press, "Injustice has been served today. The gay marriage movement today once again used the courts to push an untruth on unwilling Iowans: Same-sex unions are not marriages and Iowans should not be forced to treat them as such."

I also reminded the press: "The majority of courts as well as the majority of Americans have rejected the arguments the Iowa judges imposed." There is no more a constitutional right to gay marriage than there is a constitutional right to have your cat called a dog, because after all they are both small furry animals with four legs and a tail.

Reading the decision is like watching another bit of the fabric of our civilization unravel:

Why do same-sex couples need marriage?  "The inability to obtain for themselves and for their children the personal and public affirmation that accompanies marriage." Translation: "Iowans don't think two guys pledging to a homosexual union are a marriage. So we, the guys with the fancy law school degrees and the black robes, the ones who know better than ignorant you, are going to give same-sex relationships the public affirmation the public hasn't."

The most heartbreaking sentence however is Footnote 26.  

In Footnote 26 these justices conclude: "The traditional notion that children need a mother and a father to be raised into healthy, well-adjusted adults is based more on stereotype than anything else."

Justices? Injustices. I hate being right about something so sad: but gay marriage really is about rejecting the natural family, the importance of bringing together the two creators of the child, the mom and the dad, to raise their baby in love together. The Iowa court ruling once again makes that connection crystal clear.

Read it and weep.

Or if you are like me, read it and rise up to fight for the truth!  Fight for justice for our children, fight for love of the core values of our own (and any decent) civilization. 

Rep. Steven King in Iowa has issued a stinging rebuke to this court and a stirring call to the Iowa Democratic leaders to permit the people of Iowa to decide the future of marriage. We'll be partnering with him and other Iowans to urge the legislature to act now to reverse this injustice.

The battle ahead is immense. This is one of the legislatures "flipped" by gay billionaire Tim Gill--exactly in anticipation of this moment. If I have your support, I know the fight is worth it!

Can you help us at this critical time by giving $50, $500, or even, if God has given you the means, $5,000 to support marriage? Can you afford to pledge even $1 a month to support marriage? 

In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas has promised to veto the same-sex marriage bill passed by the legislature, and the margin in the House on Thursday was not enough to override his veto. But the Tim Gills and the Nancy Pelosis of the world will put immense pressure on Vermont Democrats to flip their votes, to override marriage. We will be fighting hard to be the voice of the Vermont people and so will grassroots organizations like Vermont Renewal and Take It to the People.

There is some good news this week: The New Hampshire vote was unexpectedly close, shocking LGBT advocates who were convinced they could move gay marriage easily. Congrats to Conerstone Policy Research, and we'll help keep those politicians' feet to the fire!

And back to California, one of the leading gay marriage advocates just confessed to the Dallas Voice (a gay paper) that she is "98 percent certain" the California Supreme Court will uphold Prop 8.   "We're going to lose," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit challenging Prop 8.

"I think it was very clear from the oral arguments that the court intends to uphold Prop 8," Kendell added. "I've never seen a court so unequivocally telegraph their thinking."

I had good news also last weekend in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I was invited to address a Catholic men's breakfast. I walked into a convention center jam-packed with good men--more than 1000 people filled the room. I told them: This isn't a fight that we can give up on. We cannot permit ourselves to be embarrassed or afraid to speak truth to power--whether it's in the press as sometimes I get to do, or over the water cooler. Marriage means a husband and wife.

A thousand men stood and applauded. It was a very moving moment for me. 

Some truths do not change. To make a marriage you need a husband and a wife. That was true 1000 years ago, and 1000 years from now it will still be true because it is a truth rooted in the nature of humanity itself. For Christians this anthropological truth about the important of man and woman contains a theological insight: In the union of male and female, we glimpse something about the nature of God Himself.  "From the beginning, this was so," as Jesus told his befuddled disciples. 

We human being are often befuddled, easily distracted, sometimes discouraged. But in this marriage fight, we ground our hopes on a truth that is not built upon shifting sands of fashion. 

Each week I like to share with you news stories quoting NOM--we call it "NOM in the News." But there are too many this week for me to include them all. The Wall Street Journal,  the Associated Press, Vermont public radio--the mainstream media is turning to NOM increasingly as a prime voice for the marriage movement.

Let me tell you, I never forget whose voices we really are: first and foremost the voice of truth, spoken fearlessly, to all the powers that be who seek to suppress God's own truth. Striving to speak out of that perfect love that casts out all fear. We seek to be your voice for our shared and timeless values. 

Thanks so much for giving us this precious opportunity to witness to unchanging truths in these uncertain times.

I promise you: The good fight is never over. The next phase is just beginning.

God bless you, and may God bless our great country,

Brian S. Brown
Executive Director
National Organization for Marriage
20 Nassau Street, Suite 242
Princeton, NJ 08542
bbrown@nationformarriage.org

P.S.: We need your help to defend marriage! Can you give $50, $500, or even, if God has given you the means, $5,000 to support marriage? Can you afford to pledge even $1 a month to support marriage? Donations to NOM are not tax-deductible and they are NOT public information, either. 

NOM in the News: 

Same-Sex Marriage Effort Shifts Back to Northeast
Associated Press
March 26, 2009

... But for now, the focus on legal recognition of same-sex relationships has returned to northern New England.

"There is not an easy way to get the issue on the ballot and before the voters so that it can be decided directly by the people," said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage and is underwriting a radio campaign against it. "Therefore, it is more a creature of special-interest politics and legislative deal making. These are small states which can be influenced by fairly large amounts of outside money coming in. And it's very hard for regular people to feel that they can have a voice on this issue in these states."  Read More >>

Same-Sex Marriage Bill Passes House 95-52
Rutland (Vt.) Herald
April 2, 2009

Brian Brown, the executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, said his group has placed calls to about 200,000 households in the state this week, urging residents to call their state representative to oppose the bill.

The automated call -- which includes the name of the household's state representative and their phone number -- asks residents to tell their lawmaker to stand with Gov. James Douglas, who said he will veto the bill if it passes.

"A lot of our supporters in Vermont were really concerned about this issue, especially the speed that it was debated," Brown said. "All we are doing is helping them contact their local representative and tell them how they feel."   Read More >>

Advocates on Both Sides of Marriage Debate Wage Media Campaigns
Vermont Public Radio
April 2, 2009

...Host: Even before the debate in the House, advocates on both sides of the issue were waging media campaigns to influence legislators -- and to sway public opinion.

VPR's John Dillon has more on that story:

(Dillon) On Wednesday night during the dinner hour, about 200,000 phones in Vermont rang almost simultaneously.
The caller was a computer, and it played a version of this message:

(Call) "Hello, please call your representative Janet Ancel ... today and ask her to join Governor Jim Douglas in opposing the same sex marriage bill. Thank you for your time and support, the National Organization for Marriage."

... (Dillon) Brian Brown is executive director of the National Organization for Marriage. The group was heavily involved in a California referendum that repealed that state's same sex marriage law.

Brown says the Vermont media campaign is a relatively low budget operation.

(Brown) "We send emails, too and that's not a high cost. $10 - $15,000, maybe a little more now. But it's not been a capital intensive campaign. It's been a grassroots campaign."   Read More >>

Vermont Gay Marriage Vote Near
Wall Street Journal
April 3, 2009

...The Vermont House of Representatives late Thursday was poised to vote on a bill that would legalize gay marriage, a divisive measure that has drawn a veto threat from the governor. ...

Opponents of gay marriage say the legislative efforts in Vermont and elsewhere in New England are part of a lobbying campaign to hasten the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act.
"They are trying to provide new reasons for the repeal," said Maggie Gallagher, president of the conservative National Organization for Marriage.   Read More >>

Men Hear Message
Catholic Free Press
April 2009

More than 1,000 men from Worcester County and beyond packed a DCU Center conference hall March 28 for the 9th Annual Worcester Diocesan Catholic Men's Conference, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of speakers -- and from each other. ...

Highlights included prepared talks by former pro football player Joe Klecko, New Jersey lay evangelist Bill Wegner, National Organization for Marriage Executive Director Brian Brown and 1986 U.S. Teacher of the Year Guy Doud. ...

Brown, the National Organization for Marriage leader, talked about marriage's importance to society and about how government's backlash against Catholics' objections to gay marriage represents an attack against religious liberty.

Brown noted how states are equating Catholic opposition to gay marriage to racism. He raised the example of how Massachusetts denied Catholic Charities the ability to facilitate adoptions because the state ruled that the group's stance against providing children to gay couples is discriminatory.

"Do you understand what's at stake?" Brown asked the crowd. "At stake is that our form of religious belief is being labeled a form of bigotry."

Brown, whose group led the fight against gay marriage in California, noted that African Americans in the Golden State rejected the bigotry argument and "voted overwhelmingly" to support the referendum to overturn the gay marriage statute.

Brown urged the crowd to "stand up and not accept that argument, and not ever feel ashamed of what we believe."    Read More >>