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APRIL 30, 2009

National Organization for Marriage and Carrie Prejean Launch New Ad
Showing Intolerance of Gay Marriage Activists, Illustrating Threats to Religious Liberty

(Washington, DC) - A new television ad featuring footage of Carrie Prejean explaining her support for marriage between a man and a woman, and then being verbally attacked by gay marriage activists was launched today by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). The ad - a continuation of NOM's campaign in defense of marriage - also features footage of a gay marriage activist from the Human Rights Campaign referring to supporters of marriage as "outright bigots."

"Carrie only said what the majority of Americans believe: marriage means a man and a woman," said Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM. "Her example resonates, especially to many young Americans, because she chose to stand for truth rather than surrender her core values."
Gallagher added, "The behavior of Carrie's critics raises a question in a lot of folks' minds: if this is how they treat good people who disagree with them now, what will they do once they have the power of the law on their side?"

The new ad, called "No Offense," follows an earlier NOM ad ("Gathering Storm") that warned Americans that the push to legalize same-sex marriage has significant implications for religious liberty. In response to the earlier ad, a representative of the Human Rights Campaign appeared on Hardball to denounce NOM and supporters of marriage as "outright bigots" who are hanging onto the tradition of marriage through "lying and misrepresenting." The HRC spokesman challenged the notion that same-sex marriage has any implications for religious liberty.

NOM's new "No Offense" advances the religious liberty argument by informing Americans that a number of prominent legal scholars have warned that legalizing same-sex marriage in fact "will create widespread and unnecessary legal conflict" for individuals, small businesses and religious groups. At least one of these scholars supports same-sex marriage.

"Many backers of same-sex marriage simply do not want to debate the consequences on society of this profound proposed change to redefine marriage," said Brian Brown, executive director of NOM. "They want to browbeat and silence opposition. But no matter how loudly they yell, their attacks on supporters of marriage will fail because people of integrity will speak the truth -- whether they are in pulpits, law schools or even beauty pageants."

To view the ad and read the letters from legal scholars, go to www.nationformarriage.org.

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