Dear Friends of Marriage,

Wow.

What an extraordinary two weeks!

Let me step back from the news headlines and tell you what is really happening out there.

The ultimate goal of the architects of gay marriage in this country is to get inside your head and make you feel despair. Make you feel alone. Make you feel powerless. They need you and me to give up.  That's the only way they can win.

They know that only one thing stands between them and their peculiar drive to end marriage as we know it: the good sense and good will of  the American people. 

Even with all the enormous powerful assets on their side: a news media almost uniformly sympathetic, an enormous war chest of money fueled by wealthy donors, a network of powerful people capable of punishing anyone who disagrees, backed by angry netroot mobs licensed to hate good Americans who speak up for marriage: They cannot take their case to the American people and win. 

Not in California, not in New York, not in Connecticut, not even in Vemront.  As NOM's president, Maggie Gallagher, kept reminding the news media during their "big mo" message meme: One thing that hasn't changed is the opinions of the American people. Only one-third of Americans in the latest (March 12) CBS News poll said they support same-sex marriage.   

This is a movement dedicated to imposing gay marriage on you and your children, whether you like it or not.

(Now I know by the way that not all gay people or gay marriage supporters think like that. And even for those who do, in the midst of this vigorous battle for God's truth, we are charged with the task of nurturing charity in our hearts towards the people with whom we disagree.)

It's clear now that the last two weeks Iowa-Vermont-DC-New York-New Hampshire were a one-two-three-four punch that was  part of a coordinated strategy with one single goal: to engineer a story line that the marriage debate is over--gay marriage advocates have won. It's over. Despair is the only option.

Instead something extraordinary happened: You didn't give up, you fought back!

In New Hampshire, thanks to Cornerstone Policy Research, hundreds of people crowded the capitol to protest the gay marriage bill. Kudos to Kevin Smith's leadership. Thanks to you NOM was able to reach out and help spread the word in New Hampshire using sophisticated technology--and the people of New Hampshire responded to the call to speak truth to power! Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire just announced he's with us on marriage. 

In nearby Rhode Island, Catholic Online reported that "Gov. Donald Carcieri announced he would throw his support behind the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM)."

Well I wouldn't necessarily put it that way, but the feisty NOM Rhode Island chapter, under the leadership of new executive director Chris Plante, generated local headlines with a Providence press conference and rally to announce NOM's new "Gathering Storm" media campaign. Thanks Gov. Carcieri, and all the good people of Rhode Island who stood up for marriage!

In Connecticut, thousands of calls are flooding the legislature to protest SB 899, a bill that supposedly "implements" the Connecticut court decision by repealing protections against using public schools to propagandize for gay marriage. Once again you helped us swing into action to help in this fight. Within 24 hours of learning that the bill was being taken up NOM hit the airwaves with a brand new radio ad. (You can hear the ad, and all of NOM's ads, here. Help us take this message to the next level--can you donate $10, $40, or $80 to put a marriage ad on the radio today?)

And yes, we're working on New York and New Jersey too--more on that in the future.

In Iowa, we are working with Congressmen Steve King to contact thousands of Iowans to personally urge them to call their legislators and let them know: Same-sex unions are not marriages. Iowans want the chance that Californians and people of 29 other states have claimed for themselves: the right to take this issue out of the hands of judges and politicians and to decide the future of marriage themselves. 

Do not believe the sophisticated media spin: The battle in for marriage in Iowa and elsewhere is not over. We have not yet begun to fight!

Speaking of the media campaign, it has been an enormous success: Millions of people have viewed our "Gathering Storm" ad, which you can see here.  In fact, we broke into the top 100 videos on YouTube in the entire country. Thank you. (Stephen Colbert even made fun of our ad last night. The "Colbert Report"--now we've really made it into the big time! Thanks, HRC!)  

(Help us spread the word! Believe me, we understand that not everyone can give money.  We appreciate all you do: your prayers especially, your words of encouragement, your courage in speaking out in your own community, your willingness to email and call politicians and alert your friends. But the battle for marriage is urgent now: We need your help. If God has given you the means can you give $10, $50, or  $100, today to protect marriage?)

This first ad in our $1.5 million media campaign helped us kick off our much larger goal: recruiting two million for marriage . (A side note: No, we don't call it "2m4m," that's what MSNBC's gay-marriage advocate and sometime journalist Rachel Maddow called it--amazing how much stuff they just make up while calling our side "liars," isn't it? Silly stuff.) The response has been so tremendous so far, I'm thinking of renaming it: ten million for marriage! 

(If God has given you the means, can you reach down and spare $2 a month for marriage? Just $2 a month can help us find two million Americans to work with you to defend marriage. Or if God has given you the means, can you spare $20 a month? Or even $200 a month?)

Another amusing side note: At the same time that HRC's Joe Solomonese called us liars and bigots on national TV for noting that same-sex marriage has consequences for religious liberty, the Washington Post published an story on... how scholars agree that same-sex marriage has consequences for religious liberty.  ("Faith Groups Increasingly Lose Same-Sex Marriage Battles," April 9.)  Nice timing, that Joe!

The gay marriage advocates interviewed by the Washington Post were unashamed about cutting off religious people's rights: "We are not required to pay the price for other people's religious views about us," said Jennifer Pizer, director of the Marriage Project for Lambda Legal, a gay rights legal advocacy group.

Finally, the Washington Post acknowledged that even worse may be to come: "Some legal analysts suggest that religious groups that do not support gay rights might lose their tax exemptions because of their politically unpopular views. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who supports same-sex marriage, said current law 'puts us on a slippery slope that inevitably takes us to the point where we punish religious groups because of their religious views.'"

We're telling the truth about what gay marriage is going to mean--for children and for faith communities. That's what's making the Human Rights Campaign go ballistic.

Finally, I'd like to close by sharing with you an extraordinary interview Maggie Gallagher did with Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher:

Rod Dreher: Maggie, you and I are on the same side of the gay marriage issue, but I am pessimistic about our chances for success. You, however, are optimistic. What am I missing?

Maggie Gallagher: Vaclav Havel mostly. "Truth and love wlll prevail over lies and hate." On that basis Havel took on the Soviet empire. Where is that invincible empire now?

Same-sex marriage is founded on a lie about human nature: "there is no difference between same-sex and opposite-sex unions and you are a bigot if you disagree."

Political movements can--sometimes at great human cost and with great output of energy--sustain a lie but eventually political regimes founded on lies collapse in on themselves.

I don't think of myself as optimistic: just realistic. What does losing marriage mean? First the rejection of the idea that children need a mom and dad as a cultural norm--or probably even as a respectable opinion. That's become very clear for people who have the eyes to see it. (See e.g. footnote 26 of the Iowa decision.)

Second: the redefinition of traditional religious faiths as the moral and legal equivalent of racists. The proposition on the table right now is that our faith itself is a form of bigotry.

Despair is gay marriage advocates' prime message point. All warfare, including culture war, is ultimately psychological warfare. You win a war when you convince the other side to give up.

So now you want to decide we've lost on an issue where, in the March 12 CBS News poll two-thirds of Americans agree with us. I mean, does this make sense? 

...People are flocking to the National Organization for Marriage (www.nationformarriage.org), not because we try to scare them about how bad things are going to be--but because we offer them a chance to come together with other people of all races, creeds and colors to stand up for a core and timeless good.

Here's what I know that maybe you can't see: There are enormous untapped energies out their waiting for someone to organize them effectively.

RD: It's my view that our side has lost this battle, at least in the long run, because we've lost the culture. Bottom line: I believe we should retreat to a strategically defensible position while there's still time. You disagree. What's wrong with my analysis?

MG: Rod, you are bargaining with yourself by saying "give up marriage and focus on religious liberty protections." The proposition on the table is your faith is a form of bigotry and Americans don't grant religious liberty protections to bigots.

Conceding the main point--that our marriage tradition is a good and honorable thing that deserves respect--is not going to help you win any religious liberty protection.

We need to build effective grassroots organizations in blue states. Or we are going to lose marriage. And religious liberty.

Abandoning the 60 percent or so of Americans who agree with you on marriage isn't going to help you win any fight at all.

We need to do a lot of things but one of the key ones is: we have to find the people who care about marriage and organize them into an effective force. Especially in blue states.

We don't do that, the churches are going to get rolled.

I don't have time for pessimism. The stakes are too high.

Hope is a virtue. Despair is not only a temptation, it's the greatest lie of them all. Because we know who wins in the end, don't we?

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be your voice for God's truth about marriage.

Keep me in your prayers. You are in mine.

God bless you,

Brian S. Brown
Executive Director
National Organization for Marriage
20 Nassau Street, Suite 242
Princeton, NJ 08542
[email protected]

P.S.: Below is just a sample of media mentions of NOM. Thank you for helping us get the word out!

NOM in the News: 

Rhode Island Governor Denounces Same-Sex "Marriage"
Catholic Online
April 8, 2009
Immediately after Vermont's legislature overturned a veto to legalize same-sex "marriage" last Tuesday, Rhode Island's Gov. Donald Carcieri announced he would throw his support behind the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

Gay Marriage and the Future of Religious Liberty
Maggie Gallagher column at Townhall
April 7, 2009
Last week the Iowa Supreme Court found a constitutional right to gay marriage, rejecting the arguments for marriage accepted by the state supreme courts of New York, Maryland and Washington.

Thus did the Iowa court -- as my colleague at the National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, said -- "misuse the law to impose an untruth on unwilling Iowans. Same-sex unions are not marriages, and Iowans should not be forced to treat them as such by law."

With Victories, Gay Rights Groups Expand Marriage Push
New York Times
April 8, 2009
"It's a bad day for the country," said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, a group established to fight same-sex marriage. "There is a palpable sense that something has changed and people need to get active."

Iowa Court's Redefinition of Marriage Will "Grievously Harm" Families, Bishops Say
Catholic News Agency
April 9, 2009
Maggie Gallagher, president of the New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage, criticized the decision, saying "once again, the most undemocratic branch of government is being used to advance an agenda the majority of Americans reject."

Vermont Legalizes Gay Marriage with Veto Override
GMA News 
April 8, 2009
"To the millions of Americans who care about marriage, we say get ready: President Obama and Democrats will use Vermont as an excuse to overturn the bipartisan federal Defense of Marriage Act," said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which waged a radio campaign against the measure. "The next step is to ask the Supreme Court to impose gay marriage on all 50 states."

Maggie Gallagher: Don't Give Up on Marriage! 
Dallas Morning News 
April 14, 2009
I have written recently that while I am an opponent of same-sex marriage, I believe the other side will win this struggle, because the country has changed and is changing in ways that make their triumph inevitable. Maggie Gallagher, one of the most prominent advocates of traditional marriage in the country, wrote me recently to object to my position. I asked her if she'd agree to an interview on the subject. She agreed. Read below Gallagher's view on why all is not lost for traditional marriage campaigners -- and why they'd better not give an inch, or "the churches are going to get rolled." What do you think?

New York Governor Introduces Gay Marriage Law.
AFP
April 16, 2009
The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex weddings, urged New Yorkers to write protest letters to their representatives.

"Now is the time to send a message to New York legislators: In the midst of the biggest economic crisis in generations, now is not the time to be messing with marriage. Get back to work," the organization said on its website.

Big Wins Re-Energize Gay Marriage Activists
National Public Radio 
April 16, 2009
A recent advertisement aired by the National Organization for Marriage, a group formed to fight same-sex marriage, is called "A Gathering Storm." It uses actors to portray everyday people who talk about how gay marriage would affect their lives.

Gay Marriage in the Heartland 
Salon 
April 15, 2009
The National Organization for Marriage launched a $1.5 million advertising campaign that included broadcasting the fear-mongering "The Gathering Storm," which claims that same-sex marriage will infringe the rights of straight people. The video, denounced by gay rights activists, is intended to encourage Iowans to pass a law to dismantle the ruling.

Time to Shed One More Marriage Bias
Detroit Free Press
April 15, 2009
Now that Iowa and Vermont have joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in legalizing same-sex marriages, opponents of such marriages are reiterating their belief that, in the words of the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist seminary in Kentucky, "We are watching the moral and social landscape of the nation be transformed before our eyes." Also, a group called the National Organization for Marriage has launched a nationwide ad campaign depicting same-sex marriage as a threat to American religious freedoms.

Anti-Gay Marriage Ads Air in Iowa
WHO-TV
April 10, 2009
Last week the Iowa Supreme Court ruled on same sex marriage, but the debate is far from over as a new television ad is calling on central Iowans to fight the ruling. The commercial, called "Gathering Storm," hit the airwaves this week in Iowa. It is part of a campaign by the National Organization for Marriage. 

NOM Starts $1.5 Million Ad Campaign 
Daily Princetonian 
April 15, 2009
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), co-founded in 2007 by politics professor Robert George and based on Nassau Street, has launched a $1.5 million ad campaign in several states to energize opponents of same-sex marriage.

Fear-mongering from the National Organization for Marriage
Examiner.com
April 9, 2009
The National Organization for Marriage, an institution whose stated mission is, "...to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it", recently deployed an ad full of half-truths and outright lies designed to inspire terror among opponents of same-sex marriage.  During the course of the ad, three actors relay stories that, according to the ad, "are based on real life incidents", a claim that is infuriatingly inaccurate.

Fakers Foiled
Metro Weekly
April 12, 2009
Two of the made-up lines read by 23 different actors used by Maggie Gallagher's traditional conservative fear-tank National Organization for Marriage. The actors, some of whom barely speak English, can be seen flubbing their lines a number of times. It's been reported that Human Right Campaign came into possession of these videos which can be found across internet video sites, and that N.O.M. has been coordinating it's efforts to remove these embarrassing outtakes. Even some videos copied from Rachel Maddow's MSNBC news program where she showed clips of the silly videos have been labeled on YouTube as "no longer available due to a copyright claim by National Organization for Marriage.''

Rhode Island Governor Backs Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign
Associated Press
April 7, 2009
The Republican governor will appear Wednesday at a news conference with members of the state chapter of the National Organization for Marriage. The group plans to unveil an ad campaign that will run in states viewed as battlegrounds in the debate over same-sex unions. 

Prop 8 Rivals Take Their Fight National   
Capitol Weekly 
April 13, 2009
In his view, both the Prop. 8 campaign and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) are "Mormon front groups" that have been trying to hide their connections to the LDS Church. He has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission alleging the LDS Church did not properly report all their donations to Prop. 8, and has launched a website seeking to tie NOM to the Church. 

In the other corner is Maggie Gallagher, the founder and president of both NOM and Institute for Marriage and Public Policy. She claims Karger is engaged in a "campaign of intimidation" that is designed to force the LDS Church "out of the public square by making the cost of participation too high."