March 27, 2012 – 10:30 am
The New Hampshire Union Leader:
The move to repeal gay marriage may have been put to rest for now, but the battle is likely to continue, legislators say.
...The bill's prime sponsor, Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, said it is foolish to think the issue will not be back before lawmakers, particularly if there is a change in the governor's office.
...“If we have a governor the next term more favorable to traditional marriage,” Bates said Thursday, “that will change the dynamics considerably.”
... The two Democratic candidates for governor, former state senators Maggie Hassan of Exeter and Jackie Cilley of Barrington, support gay marriage. The two announced Republican candidates, Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith, oppose it.
... The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) plans to use its national donor base to raise at least $250,000 for television commercials and candidate donations to support candidates who favor repealing the law.
The group's president, Brian Brown, warned Wednesday it would target lawmakers who voted against the repeal.
“This is a sad day for New Hampshire families who in 2010 had elected what they thought was a solid pro-marriage majority,” Brown said. “They were once again let down by politicians who promised them one thing and then left them at the altar when the vote was on the line. These legislators will be held accountable.”
March 27, 2012 – 10:00 am
The Christian Post interviews Jonathan Baker, director of NOM's Corporate Fairness project:
The National Organization for Marriage has announced that it is launching a boycott of Starbucks, the international coffee chain, along with its affiliates.
NOM decided to organize a boycott, dubbed the "Dump Starbucks" campaign, because the company's corporate leadership actively supported efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.
Jonathan Baker, director of NOM's Corporate Fairness Project, told The Christian Post that Starbucks' support for same-sex marriage goes beyond a mere statement from an executive.
"The support is not just the personal endorsement of a senior executive, but is the official corporate position of the company," said Baker.
"Obviously this position does not reflect the views of all customers and employees and the NOM protest and dumpstarbucks.com is designed to enable these customers and employees to have a voice."
Sen. Stephen Saland, provided the critical 32nd vote for same-sex marriage last June. Now he too will face a primary challenger:
After Gannett reported today that no Republican candidate has surfaced to challenge Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, Neil Di Carlo of Putnam County said today he’ll take on the veteran senator.
... “The families of the 41st Senate District desperately need relief from mandates, crushing regulations, and high taxes from Albany,” Di Carlo, of Brewster, said in a statement. “Senator Saland has been in office for 32 years and he has not delivered.”
... Our families need a new voice in Albany that will deliver the benefits that flow from genuine conservative ideals and principles; this will not be a one-issue race,” Di Carlo said, hinting at the same-sex marriage issue. “That is why I am formally announcing my intention to seek the Conservative and Republican Parties endorsements for New York Senate in the 41st District.”
On his congressional campaign website, he says he’s pro-life and opposed to same-sex marriage.
Di Carlo said the “voters must have an opportunity to choose a conservative Republican who is not a liberal Democrat collaborator.” -- Politics on the Hudson
Sen. Ruben Diaz, the pro-marriage hero who broke with his party last June and voted against gay marriage explains how gay marriage has backfired on the Democrat Party:
Gay marriage has backfired on the Democratic Party.
You should know that since Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for gay marriage in the State of New York and convinced the Democratic Party in the Assembly and the Senate to follow his lead to legalize gay marriage, the Democratic Party in New York City has not won a single victory.
Starting with the defeat of David Weprin by Bob Turner for the Congressional seat vacated by Anthony Weiner, and most recently with the embarrassing defeat of Lew Fidler by David Storobin for the Senate seat vacated by Carl Kruger, the Democratic Party lost. In each special election, the Democratic candidate was expected to win handily given the composition of registered democrats in each district, and given the low turnout expected in special elections.
You can spin this any which way you want, but the fact of the matter remains that gay marriage has played a major role in the outcome of each of these elections. The support that the State Senate Democratic Conference gave for gay marriage has backfired on them to the point that as each day passes, it is more and more difficult and less and less possible for us to get back into the Senate Majority...
Dear Marriage Supporter,
In just a few days, nearly 20,000 of you have signed the DumpStarbucks petition, putting Starbucks on notice that their corporate attack on marriage is forcing you to buy your coffee elsewhere.
Help us cross the 25,000 threshold this week!
If you haven't yet signed the petition, click here to get all the details and add your name to the thousands who have already signed.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, it's important for all of us to continue spreading the word about Starbucks and its campaign for same-sex marriage.
One of the easiest ways for you to spread the word throughout your community is by a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Some of you write letters to the editor regularly—but for those who have never done so, we're making it simple. Just click here to get started—we've prepared a sample letter that you can customize, and then submit electronically through our website. Just be sure to provide contact info so that the editor can contact you if necessary to verify your submission.
Our goal is to submit 200 letters to the editor of newspapers across the country this week. Will you be one of the 200 willing to stand up and tell your community what Starbucks is doing to attack our shared values?
Click here to get started right now!
March 26, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, President of the Ruth Institute, responds to the GLAAD's libel that to be pro-marriage makes one guilty of being anti-gay:
"Earlier this month the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s (GLAAD) “Commentator Accountability Project” included me on their list of people who deserve special scrutiny before they can be engaged as commentators on the marriage debate. But it is organizations like GLAAD that need to be held accountable for the impact of their rhetoric on the public debate.
According to the GLAAD website, I have held myself out as someone who purports to be an “expert on the lives of LGBT people.” Evidently (and unbeknownst to me) I have devoted my career “making life more difficult for LGBT people.” Although these extreme statements have since been scrubbed from the site, the organization continues to claim that “Bias is Not Balance.” The undeniable implication is that my views are baseless. GLAAD’s systematic policy of slapping negative labels on their opponents without actually engaging them in debate reduces the quality of discourse in the public square.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of words I have spoken or written, GLAAD found a grand total of four quotes as evidence of my supposed “extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community.” One of these is that I say redefining marriage will marginalize fathers from the family, because fathers will be considered inessential. GLAAD acts as if this were self-evident evidence of anti-gay bias. -- The Blaze
March 26, 2012 – 11:00 am
The Christian Civic League of Maine is encouraging its members to Drop Starbucks:
"...By going to www.dumpstarbucks.com, you can sign our petition, and take action to contact Starbucks directly. You can also see places near you [in Maine] where you can buy coffee rather than patronize Starbucks.
Let your Maine local Starbucks manager and the corporate leadership know that you’ve joined the Dump Starbucks campaign, and tell them where you’ll be going instead to buy coffee. Telephone numbers for local Maine Starbucks are available at the www.dumpstarbucks.com web site..."
We invite other state family policy councils and pro-family groups to join our (inter)national cause
March 26, 2012 – 10:00 am
AnsaLatina covers news of the Americas in Spanish and mentions our Dump Starbucks protest:
La iniciativa, publicitada tanto en Estados Unidos como en el extranjero, donde Starbucks tiene muchas tiendas, fue titulada "Dump Starbucks", "Desechen a Starbucks".
A rough Google translation:
The initiative, advertised in both the U.S. and abroad, where Starbucks has many shops, was entitled "Dump Starbucks", "Give up a Starbucks.
The hits just keep coming:
Assemblyman Sean Hanna, R-Mendon, Monroe County, is eying a potential primary challenge to Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County.
...Hanna, a former county legislator and regional DEC commissioner under former Gov. George Pataki, has been talked about for months as a conservative alternative to Alesi, who was the first Republican senator last year to back the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The state Conservative Party has vowed to run candidates against the four Republican senators who supported the same-sex marriage bill. -- Politics on the Hudson
The Italian news portal Lettera43 writes about NOM's Dump Starbucks campaign:
Di contro la National organization for marriage, d'ispirazione conservatrice, ha lanciato una campagna di boicottaggio in Usa e all'estero, dal nome Dump Starbucks campaign.
... and for those of us whose Italian is not up to speed, here's a rough Google translation we touched up:
The National Organization for marriage, which is conservative, has launched a boycott campaign in the U.S. and abroad, the name of which is the Dumps Starbucks campaign.
