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Monthly Archives: August 2011

HRC President Joe Solmonese Resigning

August 30, 2011 – 8:30 am

Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, the influential gay rights group at the forefront of debate over same-sex marriage and the repeal of don't ask don't tell, announced his resignation over the weekend.

Solmonese will depart at the end of his contract in March 2012. After seven years, he said he wants to to try something new but plans to remain political.

"This is the right moment for me to move on," Solmonese said in a press release.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (3)

NY-9: Weprin Supporters More Likely to Change Vote After SSM Betrayal

August 30, 2011 – 8:00 am

Orthodox Jews have supported NY Assemblyman David Weprin in the past but now his vote for same-sex marriage is putting that support in grave jeopardy, as the Village Voice reports:

"...Though Weprin gave generously to Jewish nonprofit groups when he was the City Council's finance chair, many religious Jews are still fuming about his vote in the Assembly this year in favor of same-sex marriage.

While turnout in an off-year special election is notoriously hard to predict, the latest Siena poll [PDF] shows that despite a three-to-one advantage for Democrats, Weprin leads by just six points—and that his voters are significantly more likely to change their vote."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage Election Watch, New York, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (1)

Governor Perry Signs Marriage Pledge!

August 29, 2011 – 6:10 pm

2012 NOM Marriage Challenge

Dear Marriage Supporter,

Governor Rick Perry

Kudos to Gov. Rick Perry for making it clear: he's a marriage champion!

Our purpose in creating the Marriage Pledge was to move presidential positions from vague values statements to concrete actions to protect marriage. With his signature yesterday, Gov. Perry joins Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum as a signer of NOM Marriage Pledge. (Click here to view Governor Perry's signed pledge.)

Each of the frontrunners for the GOP nomination have now signed the NOM Marriage Pledge, going on record with a strong commitment to protecting marriage. Governor Perry's signature makes crystal clear that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, gay marriage is going to be a bigger issue in 2012 than it was in 2008, because the difference between the GOP nominee and Pres. Obama is going to be large and clear.

We've just finished our weeklong Values Voters Bus Tour with FRC Action and the Susan B. Anthony List. On Labor Day, NOM Founding Chairman Robert George will be asking questions of the candidates at the Palmetto Freedom Forum in South Carolina.
And now all the frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination have signed the NOM Marriage Pledge, promising to defend DOMA, support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, appoint judges who will be faithful to the Constitution, and protect the religious liberty of marriage supporters.

And this is just the beginning! By getting involved early, we are helping to shape the nature of the marriage debate. We have much more in store for the coming year, but need your help to make it happen. Please stand with us today – this next election will have profound consequences for the future of our nation, and with your help we can move the ball forward for marriage in 2012!

Please click here to make a generous gift of $200, $100, $50 or whatever amount is right for you. Or better yet, help sustain us through the next year with a monthly gift of $10, $20 or $50.

Together, we are showing that support for marriage is a winning position for a presidential candidate.

Faithfully,

Brian Brown

Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage

PS: This is our chance to make sure the Republican Party gets the message loud and clear: The American people, and especially the Republican grassroots, stand firmly on the side of marriage. Protecting marriage isn't just the right thing to do – it's a winning position for politicians, too! Help us communicate this message to the GOP elites with your generous gift today!

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (32)

Recent News Coverage of NOM's Marriage Pledge

August 29, 2011 – 6:08 pm

Jim Forsyth at Reuters offered good coverage of Rick Perry signing the NOM Marriage Pledge:

Texas Governor and Republican presidential contender Rick Perry has signed a pledge vowing to support a Constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be a union of one man and one woman, the group sponsoring the pledge said on Friday.

"Kudos to Governor Rick Perry for making it clear: he's a marriage champion," National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown said in a statement.

...The pledge also includes a vow to support the Defense of Marriage Act in court, appoint judges and an Attorney General who will respect "the original meaning of the Constitution," and appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of "traditional marriage" supporters.

Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, among those competing with Perry for Republican presidential nomination, have also signed the pledge, the group said.

Here's even more coverage by mainstream media:

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Marriage Election Watch, Media, Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Video: Pro-SSM Flash Mob Protests At Michele Bachmann's Husband's Clinic

August 29, 2011 – 4:16 pm

This is their idea of a good joke, complete with a fake glitter "baptism" and mock "conversion" therapy to the gay rights side:

Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent writes:

A flash mob at Bachmann & Associates, a Christian counseling clinic run by Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus [...] poked fun at allegations that the clinic performs therapy to “cure” homosexuality.

... The barbarian outfits were in response to a radio interview Marcus Bachmann gave in 2010 that insinuated that LGBT people were “barbarians” who “need to be educated.” The dance troop also featured a fake Marcus Bachmann who was “baptized” in glitter during the stunt.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Civility, Culture, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (21)

Wherein the WaPo Pretends Gay Marriage Splits the Republican Party

August 29, 2011 – 3:50 pm

NOM's Marriage Pledge continues to make waves, with the mainstream media --in this case, the Washington Post-- bending over backwards to find some way the issue hurts Republicans:

Republicans broadly are very much against gay marriage. But according to a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute last September, by a 55-to-41 percent margin, they think decisions about the issue should be made at the state level. And among tea partiers, the margin is even greater: 62 to 35 percent.

So, at least on the surface, that’s a solid majority of Republicans AND tea partiers expressing what amounts to opposition to a federal marriage amendment.

Now it should be noted that, as with Bachmann and Perry, there does appear to be some overlap between those who say they think gay marriage is a state issue and those who support a federal amendment effectively banning gay marriage.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Marriage Election Watch, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (5)

Santorum in Iowa: SSM Means Government Redefining What is Good

August 29, 2011 – 1:00 pm

CitizenLink reports that presidential candidate Rick Santorum continues to speak out strongly for marriage and religious freedom on the campaign trail:

In the question-and-answer session, published today by The Iowa Independent, Santorum explains why he believes same-sex marriage — which is legal in Iowa — threatens religious freedom.

... “When you cheapen [marriage] by saying anybody in any relationship is the same, it’s not. So you undermine the institution, number one, and number two, you’re gonna undermine religious liberty in this country. We’re seeing it already,” he continued. “Anybody who does not recognize what the state says is ‘good’ and ‘right’ is a ‘bigot.’ (The government won’t) give licenses for adoptions to organizations that won’t do gay adoptions because they’re ‘bigots.’ And a lot of those are faith-based organizations.

“Will we go into pulpits and tell preachers they can’t preach that gay marriage is wrong? Well, maybe not right away, but maybe tax-exempt status is next. There’s a conflict here because we’ve created something that is not what it is. As a result of that, it will have a huge impact on people’s religious freedom. You see it in every country that has adopted it already.

“It will also have the impact of changing our educational structure. You’re seeing that already, too, where young children are being indoctrinated as to what ‘normal’ is. Now ‘normal’ is what the law says it is.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Marriage Election Watch, Religious Liberty, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

Mike Adams Calls Out Bank of America

August 29, 2011 – 12:32 pm

Town Hall columnist Mike Adams pens an open letter to Bank of America's CEO:

I want to bring to your attention a recent decision made by your HR team that I think does not reflect your leadership of Bank of America. Dr. Frank Turek was fired as a vendor for his political and religious views, even though those views were never mentioned or expressed during his work at Bank of America.

... Dr. Turek was abruptly fired by an HR representative. Why? She explained that someone Googled his name and discovered that he had written Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone. Marriage was not the topic of his presentation, nor has it ever been in all his years of working with the bank. Moreover, as his book reveals (although no one at the Bank is likely to have read it), Dr. Turek treats all people with respect, whether he agrees with them politically or not. Nevertheless, in the name of “inclusion” and “diversity,” he was immediately excluded for his political and religious viewpoint.

Mr. Moynihan, please answer this question: Do you have to have certain political or religious views to work at Bank of America?

... I ask you to consider this: What action would have been taken by your bank had Dr. Turek written a book in favor of same-sex marriage but a conservative employee had complained? Got a bit of a double standard? Or is that somehow “different”?

By NOM Staff | Posted in Free Speech, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (19)

The "I Commit" Project -- Will You?

August 29, 2011 – 11:54 am

The Ruth Institute's Emerging Leaders program has released this powerful new video:

LifeSiteNews reports and explains:

“It’s an opportunity to make the ultimate sacrifice. Lay your life down for someone else.” This is how one of many young people interviewed for a powerful new video about love and marriage produced by the Ruth Institute describes the purpose of marriage.

Through a variety of interviews, the video, a project of The Emerging Leaders program, highlights the intense desire that people in the youngest generations have for self-sacrificial, unconditional and lifelong love – and the hope that they have that they will be able to find it.

... The video concludes with the youth each committing themselves “to lifelong married love.”

“I love this video,” Ruth Institute President Jennifer Roback Morse told LifeSiteNews.com, explaining that at the heart of the “I Commit” video are “hope, commitment, and a fresh start for the institution of marriage in American society and beyond.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, Youth | Comments (4)

CBN Video: Rick Perry Vows to Protect Marriage

August 29, 2011 – 11:33 am

CBN News reports on last Friday's news that Gov. Perry has signed the NOM Marriage Pledge:

By NOM Staff | Posted in DOMA, Election Watch 2012, Marriage Election Watch, Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Frank Turek on Who Are the Real Gay Bigots and Bullies

August 29, 2011 – 9:00 am

Frank Turek is an award-winning author or coauthor of three books who also hosts a weekly TV show. He writes in TownHall:

"...the standard arguments for homosexuality and same-sex marriage don’t work. That’s why some homosexual activists will continue to smear conservatives as “bigots” in order to bully them out of the debate and even out of their jobs. In America today, it’s much easier to win with demagoguery than evidence. If you convince the majority that your opponents are “bigots,” then you automatically win even if you’re the bully actually practicing bigotry...

Will they get away with their bigotry and bullying? Not if Americans start thinking. Thinking people realize that equating homosexuality with race, though presently fashionable, is just as fallacious as calling marriage based in biology a form of bigotry. As G. K. Chesterton pointed out, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Civility, Culture, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (22)

NJ Family Policy Council: PPP & Press Wrong to Claim Majority in NJ Support SSM

August 29, 2011 – 8:00 am

From a recent update by the New Jersey Family Policy Council:

As we reported last week, Public Policy Polling released an announcement at the end of July that a majority of New Jerseyans support legalizing same-sex “marriage.” But a reporter at Politicker NJ did a little homework on the statistics and discovered that PPP’s judgment was too hasty—or perhaps loaded from the start.

The polling organization asked two questions: should same-sex marriage be legal or illegal, and should legal recognition take the form of marriage or of civil unions. 47% of respondents said same-sex unions should be recognized—only five percent more than the 42% who said they should not. But on the second question, “if the choice was between gay marriage, civil unions and no recognition at all, the public evenly splits between gay marriage (41%) and civil unions (40%).”

The way to read these results is not that the two opinions are neck and neck, with same-sex “marriage” proponents having a slight edge. If you add the 40% who prefer civil unions to the 17% who want no legal recognition at all, the picture changes. The poll reflects a clear 57% majority opposed to same-sex marriage!

By NOM Staff | Posted in Media, New Jersey, Polling, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (3)

Video: Brian Brown Debates Marriage on FOX Business with John Stossel

August 27, 2011 – 10:45 am

By NOM Staff | Posted in Media, Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Divorce-Reform Advocates Say Fighting Divorce Could Save Government Billions

August 27, 2011 – 9:00 am

LifeSiteNews:

The government could save literally billions simply by taking modest steps to fight rampant divorce, according to prominent divorce-reform advocates.

Divorce “places real burdens on children, adults, and the state,” points out W. Bradford Wilcox, the University of Virginia National Marriage Project director.

“On the latter point, libertarians and conservatives need to realize that when marriage breaks down, court costs go up, children are more likely to fail in school and later in the marketplace, more police are needed to handle delinquent boys and young men, etc. So the breakdown of marriage causes the size and scope of state authority to expand.”

The costs of divorce, and efforts to reform divorce law, were the subject of a recent Washington Times article, where it was reported that on average a divorce costs a couple $2,500, up front. But that doesn’t take into account the costs of government support for single-parent families, which the Times reports can cost anywhere from $20-30,000/year. Multiply that figure by the number of divorced and single-parent families, and you’re looking at figures well into the many billions of dollars.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Divorce | Comments (23)

Cost of Family Failure in Britain Almost $2,000 Per Taxpayer

August 27, 2011 – 8:00 am

The UK-based Relationships Foundation reports:

The cost of family failure continues to be a huge charge on the public purse. The Relationships Foundation’s annual index of the cost of family failure shows that the overall cost remains very high – at £41.74 billion (=$60 billion dollars). This means failed relationships cost each current UK taxpayer £1,364 ($1,964) a year.