Dear Friends of Marriage,

The Perry trial is over and the first poll is out: Americans overwhelmingly want the Supreme Court to support marriage.  Americans want to uphold the right of Californian voters to amend their own constitution to protect marriage.

By a 2-1 margin, Americans are rooting for Perry and Prop 8! Fifty-eight percent want the Court to uphold marriage, while only 34% want it redefined.

Remember that the next time the media tries to persuade you that you are alone. Remember, your neighbors who favor gay marriage may be noisier and angrier than those who affirm the importance of protecting marriage. But despite Hollywood propaganda, despite Ted Olson and David Boies, despite the mainstream media, despite the alleged "consensus" among intellectuals, the vast majority of Americans are not giving up on truth, common sense--or the American people's right to vote!

Protecting your right to vote for marriage without fear or favor has become a key part of NOM's mission.

In D.C. we are up on Capitol Hill asking senators and congressmen to protect the DC residents' right to vote on marriage.

And we are taking the battle to the courts too. The new Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, which is aimed at ending the right of politicians to control political discourse and action--to rig the political game in one side or another--is giving us all a renewed measure of hope for our other legal cases. In Yes on 8 vs. Bowen, we are joining with Protect Marriage to fight for the rights of California citizens to participate peacefully in the political process without facing a renewed wave of hatred and intimidation. The price of participating in American democracy should not be threats to your livelihood, your property, or your person.

We've recently filed another disclosure case, National Organization for Marriage v. McKee, for the same purpose in Maine. (The National Law Journal just noticed us, and you can read about the case below.) We may be filing more legal actions to protect your rights in other states soon. Here's the bottom line: No American should ever be afraid to exercise the right to speak, to vote, to organize or to donate on behalf of the idea that marriage means a husband and wife.

Together, with your help, we will fight these great battles--and win.

Maggie Gallagher did a column this week on a new abstinence study. It's worth reading (well, Maggie is always worth reading), but for a special reason. The abstinence debate is a case study in how progressives misuse science for their own purposes--often without even recognizing it.

Here's the cautionary tale.

Abstinence-only sex education programs began in 1996. The federal government still funds mostly contraceptive-based sex education. (In 2008 we spent four times as much money on contraceptive-based education as on abstinence.) Yet progressives targeted abstinence programs for extinction and their prime weapons were Science and Ridicule. First they began a drumbeat about how these programs had not been proven effective. Of course they had an argument on their side. Most government programs have no proof they work--but somehow this was compelling to progressives only in the one relatively tiny government program promoting teen abstinence.

Eventually Progressives progressed (not just pundits, but even credentialed scientific organizations) into suggesting abstinence programs were not only ineffective, they were doing actual harm. (Yes, they actually suggested telling kids not to have sex harms them--unless you hand them a condom at the same time. I'm not making this up.)

And so, sadly, President Obama succeeded in killing abstinence programs for 2010. When two weeks ago the Guttmacher Institute reported that teen pregnancy was once again on the rise, the press headlines blamed abstinence education. Hanna Rosin of The New Republic called for a federal mandate banning abstinence-only programs across the country.

The next day what happened? A new random-assignment clinical trial published in the prestigious Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine demonstrated that just eight hours of abstinence -only education sharply reduced the proportion of poor, African-American teens who were having sex. The science showed the program works.

Science is slow, sometimes, to catch up with common sense... but in the end the truth comes out--unless the scientific debate is prematurely closed.

We went through this same cycle of credentialed opinion with divorce in the 1970s. The credentialed experts all rushed into to say that Science was on the side of liberal divorce culture. A generation later, the data showing the damage caused by Progressive opinion came in and--to their credit--many of them changed their minds.

A lot of shocking truths came out of the Perry trial. Their expert witness testified that only a third of gay couples believe in monogamy (fidelity)--and that of those who do believe in fidelity almost three-quarters are unfaithful. How do children raised in deliberately motherless families, by two gay men, fare? Shockingly, their expert witness testified: We don't know. We don't even have a single study that looks at that question. Why are Progressives so uninterested in the science here?

What we do know is this: Every human civilization throughout history has recognized that unions of husband and wife are special, that the common good and the care of children depends in protecting  marriage in a special way. We know that mothers and fathers both matter to children, and that relationships designed from the start to deny this great good to children are not marriages.

In the end truth and love will triumph over lies and hate.

God bless you and keep fighting the good fight!

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

PS: NOM relies on your donations to protect marriage as the union of a husband and wife. Can you consider a secure donation of $10, $20, or even, if God has given you the means, $100? Thank you for all you do to promote and protect marriage!

NOM Featured Article
"Poll: Supreme Court Will Nix Gay Marriage"
UPI
January 28, 2010
Most Americans predict the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, a national poll indicated Thursday.

And most Americans would prefer the court to rule that way, the Angus Reid Public Opinion poll found.

NOM in the News
"High Court Campaign Finance Opinion Roils Dozens of Cases"
National Law Journal
February 2, 2010
Doe v. Reed, which likely will be argued in April, is a constitutional challenge to Washington's public-records disclosure law. Protect Marriage Washington and others contend the law violates the First Amendment privacy rights of voters who signed petitions to trigger a referendum overturning the state law allowing same-sex domestic partnerships.

"Calif. Marriage Trial Draws Friends With Briefs"
Associated Press
February 3, 2010
Last month, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the National Organization for Marriage were among those supporting the ban's sponsors.

"National Organization for Marriage Lobbies for D.C. Referendum"
Washington Independent
February 2, 2010
The National Organization for Marriage, fresh off a fairly successful 2009, is asking members to demand that Congress passes a bill forcing a District of Columbia referendum on the city's new gay marriage rights.

"Debate Yields Mixed Results"
CU Independent
January 28, 2010
While the dispute o.f same-sex marriage continues to spread throughout the nation, the director of Campus Ministry at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center says it is possible for society to have a civilized argument about a heated topic.

"NOM Investigation Going Forward"
The Advocate
January 28, 2010
The National Organization for Marriage wants a delay in an investigation by the state of Maine into the group's finances, but that state's ethics commission denied its request.

"Exploring the Fenty Racial Divide: Loose Lips Daily"
Washington City Paper
February 3, 2010
Kudos to GLAA Forum's Rick Rosendall Bob Summersgill, who details the finance reports filed by the various Stand 4 Marriage groups. Their nearly $200K in funding comes from four groups: Bishop Harry Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition, Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Family Research Council.

"Dear Maggie Gallagher: Exactly Why Is My 'Same Sex Union' Not a Marriage?"
Jim David
Huffington Post
January 29, 2010
"The first question for me is: Are same-sex unions 'marriages'? I'm against discrimination, I'm against hatred, I'm in favor of marriage equality, but I don't think same-sex marriage is marriage. Therefore I think it is wrong for the government to insist, through the use of law, that we all believe that same-sex unions are marriages."

- Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization For Marriage, speaking at a debate at the University of Colorado.

"Marriage Activists Stage Week of Events in Pa."
Philadelphia Gay News
February 4, 2010
In the days leading up to Valentine's Day, love will be in the air in Pennsylvania's capital, as LGBT and ally communities come together for a host of events meant to raise awareness about the need for marriage equality for same-sex couples.