A nice rally up at Rochester. You can tell we have a pretty good turnout when the MSM reports "both sides" showed up.
At 1:27, a frustrated pro-SSM supporter knocks a sign out of one of our folks' hands -- kind of strange the tv station doesn't notice:
At this weekend's Let The People Vote rally in Buffalo, pastors spoke out about the effects of Sen. Grisanti's flip-flop:
Reverend Kevin Backus is pastor of Bible Presbyterian Church on Grand Island and a power in the Conservative Party, which backed Senator Mark Grisanti for election.
Backus assailed Grisanti's claim that he would be a Senator who would represent Conservative views. "So today, we're here to tell you we're starting to look for one (a Conservative candidate to oppose Grisanti)."
... "You say that the Church now has special protection," said Mount Olive Baptist Church Pastor Reverend William Gillison. "Before you voted, I didn't need special protection." --WNED Buffalo
It's a good crowd, and a pretty fair coverage. Brian's message: if the legislature can pass SSM, it can also pass a marriage amendment to let the people decide.
Megan Cruz with YNN:
NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher in NRO's The Corner blog over the weekend:
Gov. Perry was at the Aspen Institute, that upscale gathering where great minds come to think together, when someone asked him about New York passing a gay marriage law.
According to a Des Moines Register reporter:
“Texas’s Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Friday said he’s “fine” with New York’s approval of gay marriage because such decisions should be left up to states.
That prompted a response from Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who tweeted overnight: “So Gov Perry, if a state wanted to allow polygamy or if they chose to deny heterosexuals the right to marry, would that be OK too?”
He's got some 'splaining to do:
John McWhorter, in The New Republic, "semi-defends" the Marriage Vow's "slavery passage" as factually accurate and revealing an important truth:
"The factual essence, then, of the now-infamous line in The Family Leader’s pledge represents a truth that all should take to heart: Black people, like all human beings, are capable of great resilience in the face of difficulty; and culture—there, I said it—is not just a lockstep response to the GDP or racism. This is the lesson we should learn from how uncommon single parenthood was among black people familiar with slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow."
Yes, same-sex “marriage,” so-called, poses a grave threat to religious freedom. There have already been cases where photographers and others have been sued for refusing to participate in same-sex “wedding” ceremonies. Catholic Charities in several states has been pushed out of the adoption business because they only place children with a married mom and dad. Make no mistake: protecting religious freedom is a major priority.
But this is exactly why abandoning the battle over traditional marriage is foolish and dangerous. My colleague and Princeton professor Robert George sums it up perfectly: “If you ask,” he said, “‘What can be done going forward around the country to protect religious liberty?’ the answer is this: Win the fight to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife. Period.”
... To give up the fight for marriage now after a few setbacks is crazy. The debate about marriage in America is not over. Now more than ever, Christians need to be equipped to defend marriage and to live out the truth about marriage, sex, and family in our own lives.
This is no time for defeatism or retreat, but for action.
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals.
... "In general, people do not like to have an unpopular opinion and are always seeking to try locally to come to consensus. We set up this dynamic in each of our models," said SCNARC Research Associate and corresponding paper author Sameet Sreenivasan. To accomplish this, each of the individuals in the models "talked" to each other about their opinion. If the listener held the same opinions as the speaker, it reinforced the listener's belief. If the opinion was different, the listener considered it and moved on to talk to another person. If that person also held this new belief, the listener then adopted that belief.
... The researchers are now looking for partners within the social sciences and other fields to compare their computational models to historical examples. They are also looking to study how the percentage might change when input into a model where the society is polarized. Instead of simply holding one traditional view, the society would instead hold two opposing viewpoints. An example of this polarization would be Democrat versus Republican.
What an amazing, uplifting, and energetic turnout we had on Sunday! If you couldn't be there, I hope you were able to watch online.
The crowd in Manhattan was so large the NYPD asked us to begin our march early so that we could relieve overcrowding at the gathering site. By the time we reached the United Nations plaza, nearly 10,000 people were present.
If you haven't yet had a chance to watch the speeches and coverage of the event, I hope you'll take a few minutes to do so. It was truly an amazing day.
A new era in the debate about same-sex marriage has begun. It's not about what politicians think is best, it's about demanding that the People be given their right to be heard.
Working with leaders such as Sen. Ruben Diaz, Bishop Joseph Mattera, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms president Jason McGuire and others, NOM will help to create the largest coalition ever assembled in New York history, working to put a measure on the 2015 ballot to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The rallies on Sunday were just the beginning. In the days ahead, we will unveil monthly activities for supporters to keep up public pressure and built momentum as we head toward the 2012 election. We will ask every candidate where they stand on letting the people vote on marriage. And if they aren't willing to commit their support to putting a measure on the ballot, not only will they not get our backing, they will get our opposition.
What can you do today?
Thanks to a unique pledge from a donor, you can help raise money for marriage – and it won't cost you a dime!
Between now and September 1st, NOM will receive $1 for every Facebook like, Twitter follower, or SMS Text Message Signup. It's simple and easy!
These next several months will be full of exciting new developments, as we roll out opportunities for you to stay involved, and to get your family and friends involved in the battle for marriage!
This didn't take long:
The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, acting just days after the state began allowing gay couples to wed, filed a legal brief on Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Mr. Schneiderman asserted that the law, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, violates the right to equal protection under the law for gay and lesbian couples.
The brief (attached at the bottom of the post), filed in Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York, refers specifically to New York State’s Marriage Equality Act, which was approved by lawmakers last month and took effect to great fanfare on Sunday. --NYTimes' City Room blog
Here are NOM's Brian Brown in Albany, NOM's Maggie Gallagher in NYC, and State Sen. Ruben Diaz in NYC helping to form a new movement for marriage as part of the Let The People Vote rallies which took place across the Empire State this Sunday!
===
NOM President Brian Brown was fired up and so was the crowd at this weekend's rally in Albany!
NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher begins in Manhattan by saying the people gathered today are supporting the most important civil right - the right to vote:
Sen. Ruben Diaz received a hero's welcome from the Manhattan crowd as the only Democrat State Senator who voted against SSM:
Follow our ongoing coverage of the fight to protect marriage in New York right here.
Published yesterday in the Albany Times Union:
In response to your July 22 editorial, "Gay marriage, a legal reality": Ruth Sheldon just resigned as clerk of Granby, a job she has held for 15 years.
In the unlikely event a same-sex couple showed up in this little town, Granby could easily have designated another employee to issue the license. Sheldon and others are now out of a job and health insurance, because at least one district attorney has shamefully announced an intent to criminally prosecute people like Sheldon who do not believe in gay marriage.
The Times Union stands by and applauds. Gay marriage has consequences.
We do not have to accept unjust laws imposed as part of a corrupt sell-out by Republicans in Albany. Let the people vote.
Maggie Gallagher
Chairman
National Organization for Marriage
This photo captures well the message New Yorkers witnessed on the streets of Manhattan:
Source: AM New York
Outside Buffalo City Hall, where 20 gay couples had earlier applied for marriage licenses, about 250 people gathered to remind state legislators that they won't forget the politicians who went back on their word and supported the Marriage Equality Act.
The day's main target was freshman State Sen. Mark J. Grisanti, R-Buffalo, whose vote helped move the bill through the Republican-controlled Senate. Speakers called on the crowd to vote him and any other legislator who supported gay marriage out of office in 2012.
"The fact of the matter is that when you have an issue that affects the State of New York as this one does, the people should decide it by voting," the Rev. William Gillison of Mount Olive Baptist Church said in an interview.
James Taranto, the talented WSJ blogger/columnist, comes out swinging against NOM's Let the People Vote campaign (of course, it's not just NOM's campaign --it's a coalition effort-- but WSJ names NOM).
Listen, there will be an election in 2012, in which we will find out if Republican elites are right they can pass a gay marriage bill in NY without consequences.
And actually, even WSJ had to admit about our rally:
...we happened to run into the group's New York City march yesterday as it crossed Second Avenue, and the turnout was impressive. It was the biggest demonstration we can remember seeing in the neighborhood, which gets a lot of them thanks to its proximity to the U.N. Most interesting, it was a very diverse crowd--we'd say a quarter to a third black, with lots of Hispanics.
