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Monthly Archives: February 2012

What have you done?

February 29, 2012 – 2:22 pm

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Dear Marriage Supporter,

In just 10 weeks, North Carolina voters will be going to the polls to vote on marriage.
Gay marriage activists are pouring money into the state, organizing events, phone banking, and blanketing the state with misleading claims about the Marriage Protection Amendment.

The truth is simple: The Marriage Protection Amendment protects marriage as we have always known it—the union of one man and one woman.

It will simply reinforce the law of North Carolina as it has always been, protecting marriage from out-of-control judges. But if voters only hear one side of the argument—and their bogus claims that the Marriage Protection Amendment will hurt business in the state—they just might believe it.

And that's why I need your help today!

Please click here to make a generous gift of whatever you can afford
to protect marriage in North Carolina.
Whether it's $5,000 or $50, your gift is important
as we all come together to stand up for God's truth about marriage.

Donate now

Quite frankly, you will not have a better chance this year to make a difference for marriage in your home state. And every dollar you give today will be matched by NOM's matching gift to Vote for Marriage NC.

Most people aren't even aware how imminent the threat to marriage is in North Carolina. Just last fall, three same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses, laying the groundwork for a legal challenge to North Carolina's marriage law. And in December 2011, a lawsuit was levied demanding that the definition of marriage be permanently changed for everyone to suit the preferences of one same-sex couple!

Marriage Supporter, we need you now more than ever.

If we can get the word out, I am confident we will win at the ballot, but we MUST have the resources to counter the campaign of misinformation and lies the other side will launch, backed by money from Hollywood elites and gay billionaires.

Your donation will help fund an aggressive television advertising campaign and other activities that will allow us to educate voters and spread the word about the critical need for this amendment and the serious negative consequences that will result if it fails.

We need your help right away, so please click here to make a generous gift to Vote for Marriage NC.

By Brian Brown | Posted in Marriage Election Watch, North Carolina, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

NYTimes: New Hampshire May Revoke its Gay Marriage Law

February 29, 2012 – 1:45 pm

The New York Times News Service:

As same-sex marriage supporters celebrate victories in Washington and Maryland this month, they are keeping a wary eye on New Hampshire, where lawmakers may soon vote to repeal the state’s 2-year-old law allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed.

A repeal bill appears to have a good chance of passing in the state House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans. The bigger question is whether they can muster enough votes to overcome a promised veto from Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

... Should the repeal pass, New Hampshire would be the first state in which a legislature has reversed itself on the issue of same-sex marriage.

In Maine, voters repealed a marriage law through a referendum in November 2009, shortly after the Legislature approved it. This fall, a ballot initiative will ask voters to make same-sex marriage legal again. The California Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that same-sex couples there had a right to marry, but voters banned same-sex marriage in an initiative later that year. The issue remains in court.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, New Hampshire, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (17)

Sweden About to Legalize Single Woman Artificial Insemination

February 29, 2012 – 1:15 pm

The Local:

The Centre Party, Liberals (Folkpartiet) and the Moderates want single women to have access to artificial insemination treatment, and are proposing a change to current laws despite opposition from coalition partners the Christian Democrats.

"We are convinced that people's fitness to be parents is not determined by whether one lives in a committed relationship or not," prominent MPs from the three parties wrote in a opinion piece in Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) where they proposed a legislative change.

In April last year, the Christian Democrats voted against a similar proposed change, and all the other parties in the centre-right governing Alliance coalition also chose to vote no.

Sweden, which is considered a world leader in gender equality and minority rights, has allowed lesbian couples to undergo artificial insemination since 2005 and allows gay couples to adopt children.

... The Christian Democrats have not changed their opinion on the matter, however.

“We think this is a really bad idea. All children are entitled to their parents. What’s happening here is that they are creating a law that abolishes some children’s right to a parent,” said party leader Göran Hägglund to TT.

He said that the need for parental presence in all other areas is highlighted in society.

“We need more fathers in children's lives, not fewer,” he said.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Europe, Parenting, Science | Comments (12)

Do Marriage Protection Amendments "Ban" Gay Marriage?

February 29, 2012 – 12:45 pm

Our opponents (and the media) love saying that our efforts to pass marriage protection amendments in states such as Minnesota amount to "banning" gay marriage.

Kalley Yanta of the Minnesota Marriage Minute responds: "No it doesn't. First of all, there's no such thing as gay marriage in Minnesota. The amendment doesn't change that."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, Minnesota, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (11)

NYCF PAC: "RINO" Roy McDonald (R-Wilton) Has Lost the Support of his Hometown

February 29, 2012 – 12:15 pm

The New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom PAC reports:

There are a lot of shaky knees in the liberal wing of the Republican establishment tonight! Just days ago, NYCFPAC let you know that Senator Mark "Gay Marriage" Grisanti (R-Buffalo) lost the Erie County Conservative Party endorsement, Tonight, NYCFPAC is pleased to report that "RINO" Roy McDonald (R-Wilton) has lost the support of his hometown Republican committee in the Town of Wilton.

It's a humiliating blow when an incumbent elected official loses his own town, but it just may indicate that 'ol "RINO" Roy is in trouble all across his district. On Saturday, Sen. McDonald lost the town of Malta by a vote of 21-1! Republican Senate leadership knew that McDonald was in trouble and have been trying to gerrymander Malta out of his Senate district. McDonald also lost in a Halfmoon straw poll, not one person polled would vote for him!

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

Urgent! We Need Your Help!

February 29, 2012 – 11:00 am

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Marriage Supporter,

I'm starting to get nervous.

You have always been a marriage defender in our effort to stop our opponents from redefining marriage.

And your standing up to defend marriage has never been more critical than it will be in 2012!

The most important Presidential election of our lifetime...the chance to elect a pro-marriage Senate...federal protections for marriage under assault in the courts...battles raging in over a dozen states...

Marriage Supporter, I have to tell you, we need your help immediately to fight all these battles.

So please click here to make a gift to the National Organization for Marriage of $25, $50, $100 or even $1,000 if God has graced you with the means.

Donate now

I hope you can make one immediate contribution today—NOM's fight is more important today than it EVER has been, and we absolutely MUST have your support.

Our opponents are hungrier and stronger than they have ever been in their brutal attacks on traditional marriage and we cannot let them redefine us. We will stand up and fight to maintain our traditional beliefs and protect the most sacred institution of them all—one-man one-woman marriage.

So please help, because you and I are capable of winning ANY fight for marriage as long as we are united. We have done it before, and we WILL do it again.

Just 9 months ago, the anti-marriage crusaders bullied their way through the New York legislature to shove gay marriage down the throats of New Yorkers.

And so far this year, the Governors of Washington state and Maryland (suffering, I suspect, from "Cuomo envy"—a nasty condition), have strong-armed their state legislatures into passing bills legalizing same-sex marriage.

Of course, NOM immediately sprang into action in both states—helping organize the on-the-ground, grassroots coalition and network of churches and other organizations to collect the signatures to get marriage on the ballot in November. The fight is far from over!

But, marriage supporter, there's no telling what they will try to do next! We cannot allow this to happen across our great country. With your help, we will STOP the bullies in their tracks, right the wrongs they've already imposed and make sure they leave long-standing traditional marriage alone.

We don't have any choice. We are one of the few organizations in America willing to stand up to the "gay marriage" bullies and their media allies.

So please make one urgent, generous gift of $25, $50, $100 or even $1,000 to the National Organization for Marriage today.

Thank you in advance.

By Brian Brown | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (9)

Fire Mark Grisanti!

February 28, 2012 – 5:04 pm

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Dear Marriage Supporter,

Remember this past June when the four turncoat Republicans in the New York Senate betrayed you and traded their votes and integrity to redefine marriage?

Senator Mark Grisanti was the ring leader, and perhaps the most despicable of an utterly deplorable bunch.

You see, Grisanti ran for the State Senate as a supporter of traditional marriage and even went so far as to call me personally to solicit a campaign contribution from NOM. Because we received personal assurances from him, NOM gave Grisanti $4,000 and he was elected.

You can imagine our shock when Grisanti jumped ship and threw in with Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg and gay marriage activists from Hollywood. We rallied over ten thousand supporters to express their outrage. We compared him to Benedict Arnold in mailers sent throughout his district. When Grisanti showed up at a glitzy Manhattan club with his cronies to collect hundreds of thousands in campaign cash, we ran online ads showing them at their "money dance." And after NOM helped defeat David Weprin, another legislator who voted to redefine marriage, in his bid for Congress, we ran billboards in Grisanti's district letting him know, "You're Next."

Today you can help us launch our journey to drive Mark Grisanti from public office.

Donate now

NOM NY PAC has endorsed Democrat Chuck Swanick in his bid to unseat Grisanti. Moreover, we've started with a $5,000 contribution to his campaign—but want to do more. NOM-NY PAC joins the Conservative Party in endorsing Democrat Swanick, former Chairman of the Erie County Legislature and who has a strong track record of supporting marriage in a district that is expected to be heavily Democratic.

But we have to do much more than issue press releases and contribute $5,000 to defeat Mark Grisanti. We need to mobilize thousands of our supporters throughout New York to join us. Will you join us and make a contribution to defeat Grisanti?

Mark Grisanti is sitting on a pile of campaign cash showered on him by billionaire gay marriage activists from across the country. The Buffalo News reported in January that his most recent filing to the state Board of Elections showed almost NONE of his $247,000 raised came from within his own district! We MUST show him that selling out for campaign money is a career ending move for anyone—but especially a Republican who claims to support traditional marriage.

Please act today to send a message to Mark Grisanti—betrayal will not be rewarded. We need your help today.

Please donate.

By Brian Brown | Posted in New York, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (6)

Breaking News: Maryland Marriage Alliance Files Referendum Papers!

February 28, 2012 – 2:45 pm

The Baltimore Sun:

Though Gov. Martin O'Malley hasn't even inked his freshly passed law legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, a group of faith leaders has already filed paperwork to start a petition drive aimed at repealing it.

The Maryland Marriage Alliance, made up of mostly African-American church leaders, said in a news release they will take the lead role in gathering signatures to put the law on the November 2012 ballot. They will be joined by the Maryland Catholic Conference, and, they said, the National Organization for Marriage, a national group that supports traditional unions.

Derek McCoy, the executive director of the MD Marriage Alliance said supporters of same-sex marriage "have been seeking influence from an elite group of politicians and supporters" but "the average citizens of Maryland continue to believe in the time-tested, unalterable definition of marriage."

... Opponents must gather nearly 56,000 valid signatures by June 30 in order to trigger the referendum. Maryland's referendum process was rarely used until recently. Last year opponents of the Maryland Dream Act, legislation allowing in-state tuition discounts for illegal immigrants, was easily petitioned to the November 2012 ballot.

Visit the Maryland Marriage Alliance here: www.MarylandMarriageAlliance.com

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, Maryland, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (32)

Sebelius Campaigns Against Marriage Amendment in North Carolina

February 28, 2012 – 2:00 pm

Obama's HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says it is "hugely important" to defeat the marriage protect amendment in North Carolina -- a sure sign they are "hugely" worried they are going to lose:

At a Charlotte, N.C., gathering that often sounded like an Obama campaign rally, top Cabinet member Kathleen Sebelius told nearly 1,400 people at a gay-rights fundraiser Saturday night that it is "hugely important" to not only re-elect her boss in November but also to defeat the proposed North Carolina constitutional amendment further limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

...She suggested in her 14-minute speech at the Charlotte Convention Center that gays, lesbians and other Obama backers in this key swing state use the May 8 vote on the amendment as a sort of practice run for the effort needed in November to keep North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes in President Barack Obama’s column.

... "I know there’s an important election in early May in North Carolina," Sebelius told the North Carolina gala of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay and lesbian civil rights group. "And I think it’s a great template for what needs to be done to organize people and turn out people for November. North Carolina is hugely important in this next (presidential) election." -- The Charlotte, N.C. Observer

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, North Carolina, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (8)

URGENT!! Help Defend Marriage in North Carolina!

February 28, 2012 – 1:43 pm

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Marriage Supporter,

Will you help preserve marriage in your home state? With the May 8 election just around the corner, we urgently need your help today!

Please click here to make a generous contribution to the "Vote for Marriage NC" campaign right now!

Donate now

In just 70 days, North Carolina voters will go to the polls to decide the future of marriage. If adopted, the Marriage Protection Amendment would make North Carolina the 31st state to protect marriage with a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

As of today, North Carolina is the only state in the South whose marriage laws are without this basic protection.

The Marriage Protection Amendment protects marriage in North Carolina from backroom political deals and—more importantly—unaccountable judges.

The stakes could hardly be higher. In 30 straight states, voters have approved constitutional amendments to protect marriage. A loss here would be devastating—not only for marriage in North Carolina, but for the entire nation.

Please help support "Vote for Marriage NC" and the passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment today with a gift of $1000, $500, $100 or even $25 right now.

Donate now

As we enter into the final two months of this campaign, we need to make sure that every North Carolina voter understands the importance of protecting marriage—and gets to the polls to pull the lever for marriage!

Whether it is radio and TV ads, online outreach, automated phone calls, yard signs, or organizing get out the vote volunteer efforts, a statewide campaign is expensive—and it would be heart-breaking if we had to pull back in the final days before the election due to lack of funds.

That's why NOM is organizing this 7-day campaign to raise money for the Vote for Marriage NC campaign. Over the course of the next week, we are asking you—our North Carolina supporters—to help raise $100,000 to make sure this amendment passes.

And NOM will match every dollar donated between now and next Tuesday
with a separate contribution directly to the campaign from
NOM's general account, doubling the impact of your gift.

Here is what I'm asking you to do:

  1. Go to VoteForMarriageNC.com and make your most generous gift right now. Whether you can give $25 or $2,500, don't put it off—every dollar you give today will be doubled through NOM's matching gift! The important thing is that you stand with us today.

  2. Then forward this email to your friends. We have just 7 days to raise $100,000 for the campaign. If we can reach our goal, we will ensure that the campaign has the funds needed to get the message out over these final two critical months.

I know I'm asking for a lot. But we can't afford to rest. Please be generous and give whatever you can today. In order to reach our goal, we need 1,000 North Carolinians willing to give $100 to protect marriage. Will you stand for marriage today?

Thank you in advance and God bless you!

By Brian Brown | Posted in North Carolina, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

Episcopal Priest "Proud" to Call You and Chris Christie a Bigot

February 28, 2012 – 1:30 pm

The Rev. Susan Russell writes in The Huffington Post's Gay Voices:

Yes, I rise to defend bigotry -- but not to defend acts of bigotry that get in the way of our being that nation "with liberty and justice for all" to which we teach our kids to pledge allegiance. Rather, I rise to defend the naming of those acts as bigotry -- which is critical if we're going to fully become that nation "with liberty and justice for all" to which we teach our kids to pledge allegiance.

Because here's the deal. A nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal can only live up to the high calling of that dedicated proposition by recognizing that all Americans suffer collateral damage when the fundamental rights of any Americans are subject to bigotry-based discrimination.

A case in point is the blog I wrote the week before last calling out Governor Chris Christie for vetoing marriage equality in New Jersey. In it I said that Christie "chose bigotry over equality" and "was standing on 'the Lester Maddox side of history.'" I said it, and I meant it -- and I still do.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Civility, Marriage, New Jersey, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (33)

PA Family Institute: State Marriage Law Under Attack; Legislative Action Needed

February 28, 2012 – 1:00 pm

From an action alert by the Pennsylvania Family Institute:

Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act is facing a constitutional challenge in Federal Court in Philadelphia. Your help is urgently needed to help keep marriage the union of one man and one woman in the state.

Attorneys for a lesbian woman who was “married” to her partner in Canada have petitioned the court to declare Pennsylvania’s marriage law to be unconstitutional. That means a single judge could, by his decision, rewrite the definition of marriage in the state to allow same-sex marriage. It was a case not unlike this one that led the high court in Iowa to legalize same-sex marriage there in 2009.

The only way to protect marriage for generations to come in Pennsylvania is a Marriage Protection Amendment...

... For the past five years, the state has considered legislation giving you the chance to vote on a marriage protection amendment, but each year the legislation has been prevented from moving forward. With this past year’s election, however, conservatives won a majority in both the state House and Senate, paving the way for the passage of marriage protection legislation in 2011.

“This court case is a real and present danger to marriage in Pennsylvania,” said Michael Geer, president of Pennsylvania Family Council. “It’s time our legislature act on a constitutional amendment to allow the people a voice on this important issue.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, Pennsylvania, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (6)

William Duncan's Legal Analysis of Latest DOMA Challenge

February 28, 2012 – 12:00 pm

Legal expert and director of Marriage Law Foundation William Duncan contributed this reaction to the recent DOMA case in California, presided over by Judge White:

Apparently it’s getting hard for federal judges in California to show their faces at the professional conventions unless they've struck down the Defense of Marriage Act or at least some marriage law. A judge in the Northern District and twenty of the Central District's bankruptcy judges have all said DOMA is unconstitutional. Not to mention what happened to Proposition 8. Last Wednesday, another San Francisco judge joined the crowd [PDF] holding DOMA unconstitutional in a case where a same-sex couple was trying to get federal employee benefits.

The popularity of this stance is inversely proportional to the strength of its legal reasoning. Wednesday's decision says DOMA creates a sexual orientation classification requiring "heightened scrutiny" (a category the U.S. Supreme Court created for laws that discriminate based on sex). For those interested, the "Heightened Scrutiny Clause" is next to the "Right to Government Funded Healthcare Clause" in the Constitution. Of course, all but one of the federal circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court have used "rational basis" rather than heightened scrutiny for sexual orientation classifications, but peer pressure is strong and in this case appears to have trumped precedent and normal constitutional analysis.

By NOM Staff | Posted in California, DOMA, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (4)

Dozens of Rabbis Come Out Against Fidler in NY Special Election

February 28, 2012 – 11:00 am

The Empire, WNYC:

A group of 49 rabbis urged followers not to vote for Councilman Lew Fidler in the special election to replace disgraced former senator Carl Kruger. In a letter titled “A Message for the Community”, the rabbis detail Fidler’s support for same-sex marriage, declaring:

"It is therefore considered to be a great Chilul Hashem [desecration of God's law] to vote for or provide funding, campaign assistance, public recognition or any type of campaign support to Mr. Fidler. To do so would amount to being mesiy’ayah ovrei aveirah (abetting transgression of the Torah’s commandments)."

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

Douthat on Marriage, Self-Interest and Happiness

February 28, 2012 – 10:00 am

Ross Douthat in his New York Times blog on the ongoing conversation about family (and marital) breakdown sparked by Charles Murray's new book "Coming Apart":

Matt Yglesias has an interesting intervention in the debate over Charles Murray’s “Coming Apart.” In nutshell, he suggests that the decline of marriage in the American working class doesn’t necessarily reflect a social or an economic crisis.

...the world Yglesias is describing is a world where the short-term rational self-interest of both sexes — the understandable female desire to have children without taking on the burden of husbands who are often basically children themselves, and the understandable male desire not to take a steady but low-paying job when they can work part-time, goof off on the XBox, and still find willing sexual partners — conspires to keep some of the crucial ingredients of long-term happiness out of reach for a larger and larger share of the population.

So yes, it’s a good thing that many working-class women can make enough money to support themselves and raise a child without a husband, rather than being forced into destitution instead. But it isn’t “condescending” to these mothers (as Kate Roiphe implausibly suggests) to note that raising a child is personally and psychologically stressful like almost nothing else in life, that raising a child alone or semi-alone compounds the stress, and that many if not most single mothers would probably be happier and more secure, both in the work lives and their home lives, if the males in their social circles seemed reliable enough to marry.

Likewise the men: The fact that being a slacker and a layabout in your 20s and 30s is easier, more fun and more economically rational than ever before doesn’t change the reality that men who don’t make the effort to make themselves marriageable are missing out on an institution that’s generally good for their health and well-being in the long run.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Culture, Economics, Marriage | Comments (1)
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