NOM's co-founder Maggie Gallagher writes for National Review's The Corner blog:

Andrew Pierce, a gay man (who opposes gay marriage), says Cameron’s support for gay marriage is destroying the Tory party. Ken Mehlman, and the rest of the GOP elites trying to accomplish the same thing here, should read this story:

But the bitter and ineluctable truth is that, far from increasing numbers, Mr Cameron has presided over the sharpest decline in membership in the Conservative party’s history.

Today, I can reveal that the number of Tory party members has fallen below 130,000, a drop of around 60 per cent since he took over in 2005.

The party’s U-turns over a referendum on Europe, its failure to reform the loathed Human Rights Act and the Tories’ infuriating tendency to give ever more ground to the wretched Lib Dems have contributed to the decline.

The revolt in the shires over the ‘reform’ of planning policy in the green belt also led to numerous members withholding their subscriptions in protest.

But the issue that has been the single biggest factor in this membership crisis is Mr Cameron’s unwavering commitment to gay marriage — which he reiterated at the annual Downing Street reception for members of the gay community this week.