NOM Blog ...

NOM BLOG

Chicago Tribune: Axelrod Not Making Obama's Non-Stance on Marriage Any Easier

March 14, 2012 at 8:00 am

Seema Mehta of the Chicago Tribune with more about the controversy caused by efforts to introduce same-sex marriage into the DNC platform:

...[Obama 2012] Campaign manager Jim Messina, asked about the matter [same-sex marriage in the DNC platform] during a conference call with reporters, did not take a position on such a plank, but said that such a proposal would go through the normal platform revision process.

But at the same time, he and senior strategist David Axelrod argued that GOP front-runner Mitt Romney's wooing of conservative voters, such as his hard-line immigration stance or his refusal to forcefully condemn Rush Limbaugh for calling a law student a "slut," will not be forgotten if he is the Republican nominee.

"This is not a game – you're running for president of the United States," Axelrod said. "If you don't have the strength to stand up to the most strident voices in your party, how are you going to stand up to [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad? How are you going to stand up to the challenges of the presidency?"

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Marriage, Marriage Election Watch, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (6)

National Organization for Marriage Urges New Hampshire Legislature to Pass Compromise Legislation on Same-Sex Marriage

March 13, 2012 at 5:30 pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2012
Contact: Anath Hartmann or Elizabeth Ray (703-683-5004)

"The redefinition of marriage was forced on New Hampshire with no vote of the people. We support letting voters decide this issue." —Brian Brown, NOM president—

National Organization for Marriage

Washington, D.C. — The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today urged the New Hampshire legislature to pass HB 437, compromise legislation to restore civil unions for same-sex couples, and repeal same-sex marriage while protecting couples who have already been "married." The bill's author, Rep. David Bates, has said he will offer an amendment letting voters have the final say on the legislation through a statewide referendum vote.

"Gay billionaires like Tim Gill forced same-sex marriage on the state in 2009 without voters having any say," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "We urge the legislature to adopt this compromise bill and let the voters have the final say."

###

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Anath Hartmann, [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage Election Watch, New Hampshire, Press Releases, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (14)

You're an Accomplice to Murder?!

March 13, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Email Header Image

Dear Marriage Supporter,

Just when you thought you'd heard it all...

Apparently believing that marriage is between a man and a woman, as millions of Americans like you and I do—and saying so publicly—is hate speech and equivalent to murder.

I'm not making this up. (To tell the truth, I don't have a good enough imagination to come up with this stuff.)

But I am completely serious when I say that this is exactly what NOM is fighting against every day: a vicious attempt to impose a radical social agenda while trying to silence anybody who disagrees.

Please make a donation to support the National Organization for Marriage today, and help us stand up to these vile attempts to silence and stigmatize supporters of traditional marriage! Stand with us today and help us raise $25,000 in the next 72 hours to make your voice heard!

You see, recently, actor Kirk Cameron went on the Piers Morgan show to promote his new film, Monumental. Cameron is a devout Christian and father of six (four of whom he adopted), who is not afraid to stand up for his beliefs—which he did when Piers (as he has been doing with so many social conservatives lately) turned the conversation quickly toward same-sex marriage.

Cameron explained that he believed marriage "was defined by God a long time ago...one man, one woman for life, till death do us part."

Well, as I'm sure you can guess, his answer and the subsequent discussion generated a swift and intense backlash. And it included this tweet from actress Roseanne Barr:

"Kirk or kurt or whatever Cameron is an accomplice to murder with his hate speech. So is rick warren. Their peers r killing gays in Uganda."

Yes, you read that right: Barr thinks anyone who believes in marriage is guilty of hate speech and an accomplice to murder!

According to Hollywood radicals bent on destroying marriage and the family, you and I are now accomplices to murder, and God's truth about marriage is nothing more than hate speech which leads to the killing of gays and lesbians in Uganda.

As you can see, the same-sex marriage movement is NOT about live-and-let live.

It's about viciously and aggressively imposing a radical transformative social agenda on society and ruthlessly silencing anybody who disagrees with them.

We have so many fights on so many fronts—none of which we can afford to lose if we're going to stem the tide eroding our fundamental cultural values. Please make a gift right away to help us make your voice heard.

Sure, we may be tempted to dismiss tweets from Roseanne Barr as absurd and removed from reality. But sadly they illustrate a much larger and more important point:

Proponents of same-sex marriage want to end the debate about the issue by silencing and stigmatizing us, the opposition.

That's the bottom line.

In their worldview, you and I don't have the right to say in public that it takes a man and a woman to form a marriage. So they try to brand us as bigots and haters...and now, murderers.

Marriage Supporter, it's up to people like you and me to stop them.

In love, we speak the truth, and let the American people be the judge.

Please act now.

If we can raise $25,000 in the next 72 hours, it will enable us to continue to fight. Your gift today will send a loud message to Hollywood elites like Roseanne Barr that everyone has a right to their opinion without slander and retribution.

By Brian Brown | Posted in Culture, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (65)

Hundreds of El Paso Christians Face Jail Time for Opposing Pro-Gay Legislation

March 13, 2012 at 1:00 pm

CitizenLink:

Approximately 250 Christians affiliated with various ministries in El Paso, Texas, have asked the state Supreme Court to step in immediately to prevent them from being sent to jail.

Their crime? Circulating petitions seeking the recall of Mayor John Cook and two city council members in 2010.

That year, El Paso residents passed a ballot initiative banning unmarried domestic-partner benefits. But the city council — with the mayor’s approval — voted to rescind the ordinance, prompting the recall election.

But last month, a state appeals court halted the recall and decertified the petition signatures. Immediately afterward, the city’s district attorney subpoenaed the petitions and assembled a grand jury to look into having the petition organizers prosecuted criminally. According to Texas election law, churches can’t circulate petitions; the constitutionality of that law is currently the subject of a separate federal lawsuit.

“We have more than 250 signed affidavits from local citizens there in El Paso who are terrified that they may go to jail simply for engaging in legitimate political and free speech efforts,” said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Joel Oster. “This is the United States of America, and the mayor can’t be allowed to put his opponents in jail just because he doesn’t like that they participated in a valid effort that he doesn’t favor.”

Bob Unruh has more background on this story.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Law, Religious Liberty, Texas | Comments (17)

PA State Government Committee to Take Up Marriage Protection Amendment

March 13, 2012 at 12:30 pm

Pennsylvania is in the earliest stages of introducing a marriage protection amendment which could go to the voters of Pennyslvania as early as 2013.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe initiated a hearing of HB 1434 this morning in the State Government Committee.

Please contact your state representatives in the Pennsylvania House and especially those on the PA State Government Committee and ask them to support the marriage protection amendment right away!

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, Pennsylvania, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (9)

Video: Vote for the NC Marriage Protection Amendment!

March 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm

A new web video promoting the North Carolina Marriage Protection Amendment on May 8th:

Marriage Promo - Contemporary from Vote Marriage on Vimeo.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, North Carolina, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (22)

2,500 Catholic Parishes in UK Hear Pro-Marriage Message From Bishops

March 13, 2012 at 11:00 am

The Catholic bishops in England and Wales stepped up their educational and advocacy efforts on behalf of marriage by asking for a letter defending marriage to be read in 2,500 Catholic parishes last Sunday.

You can read the letter here and see excerpts of it here.

Here is the AP coverage of their efforts:

The Catholic Church in England intensified its campaign against government plans to legalize same-sex marriage Sunday, urging the faithful to protect the "true meaning" of matrimony for future generations.

In a letter read in 2,500 parish churches across the country during Sunday Mass, the church's senior archbishops argued that the proposed change would reduce the significance of marriage.

"The law helps to shape and form social and cultural values. A change in the law would gradually and inevitably transform society's understanding of the purpose of marriage," Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith said in the letter.

"There would be no recognition of the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for the procreation and education of children," they wrote.

The archbishops ended the letter by calling on Catholics to fulfill their duty to make sure "the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations."

Britain's government plans to allow everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, to have the option of a civil marriage. Prime Minister David Cameron has openly backed the plans, and the equalities minister will launch a consultation later this month on how to change the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

And here is video coverage, via Reuters:

By NOM Staff | Posted in Catholic Church, Marriage, Religious Liberty, Same Sex Marriage, United Kingdom | Comments (5)

UK Government: Christians Have No Right to Wear Cross at Work

March 13, 2012 at 10:00 am

The Daily Telegraph:

In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.

A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.

... The Government’s refusal to say that Christians have a right to display the symbol of their faith at work emerged after its plans to legalise same-sex marriages were attacked by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain.

... Exactly half of Conservative voters oppose same-sex marriage in principle and only 35 per cent back it.

There is no public appetite to change the law urgently, with more than three quarters of people polled saying it was wrong to fast-track the plan before 2015 and only 14 per cent saying it was right.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Culture, Free Speech, Law, Religious Liberty, United Kingdom | Comments (8)

LA Times Op-Ed: Free Speech Under Fire?

March 13, 2012 at 9:00 am

Jonathan Turley is a professor of public interest law at George Washington University, writing in the Los Angeles Times:

... To put it simply, Western nations appear to have fallen out of love with free speech and are criminalizing more and more kinds of speech through the passage of laws banning hate speech, blasphemy and discriminatory language. Ironically, these laws are defended as fighting for tolerance and pluralism.

After the lethal riots over Dutch cartoons in 2005 satirizing Muhammad, various Western countries have joined Middle Eastern countries in charging people with insulting religion. And prosecutions are now moving beyond anti-religious speech to anti-homosexual or even anti-historical statements. In Canada last year, comedian Guy Earle was found to have violated the human rights of a lesbian couple by making insulting comments at a nightclub. In Britain, Dale Mcalpine was charged in 2010 with causing "harassment, alarm or distress" after a gay community police officer overheard him stating that he viewed homosexuality as a sin. The charges were later dropped.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Culture, Europe, Free Speech, Law, United Kingdom | Comments (7)

Potential Challenger Says Roy McDonald Was Dishonest With Voters With Surprise Vote for SSM

March 13, 2012 at 8:00 am

The Albany Times Union:

...McDonald, R-Saratoga, may face a primary challenge from Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Schaghticoke. He has criticized McDonald's vote in December to renew most of an expiring income tax surcharge and said he was dishonest with voters with his surprise vote for same-sex marriage — McDonald voted against the measure in 2009 and said he opposed it during his campaign.

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

Highlight: Pope Benedict's "Reasoned Defense of Christian Marriage"

March 12, 2012 at 1:30 pm

Here is what Pope Benedict told the Catholic Bishops of Minnesota (which has a marriage protection amendment on the ballot this November, as we know) during their recent visit:

... In this talk I would like to discuss another serious issue which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit to America, namely, the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and, more generally, of the Christian vision of human sexuality. It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.

Yet, as Blessed John Paul II observed, the future of humanity passes by way of the family. Indeed, “the good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded on marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area. Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself”.

In this regard, particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage. The Church’s conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation. Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike... -- L'Osservatore Romano

By NOM Staff | Posted in Catholic Church, Culture, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (58)

AP: Pope Denounces "Powerful Political and Cultural Currents Seeking to Alter the Legal Definition of Marriage"

March 12, 2012 at 1:00 pm

The Associated Press:

Pope Benedict XVI waded deep into U.S. campaign politics Friday, urging visiting U.S. bishops to beef up their teaching about the evils of premarital sex and cohabitation, and denouncing what he called the “powerful” gay marriage lobby in America.

... bishops have been at the forefront of the campaign against same-sex marriage, with at least five U.S. states scheduling ballot measures on the issue in coming months. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. conference of bishops and archbishop of New York, unsuccessfully lobbied against the legalization of gay marriage in his state.... Benedict has long championed traditional marriage between man and woman, as well as opposition to premarital sex and fidelity within marriage. But his strong comments to visiting U.S. bishops took on particular significance given the culture wars that have erupted in the U.S. this campaign season.

The 84-year-old pope acknowledged his comments might sound anachronistic or “countercultural,” particularly to the young. But he told bishops to not back down in the face of “powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage.”

“Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage,” he said.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Catholic Church, Culture, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (5)

Senate Republicans "Burned" Cardinal Dolan to Pass Gay Marriage in New York

March 12, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Dean Skelos (and/or other Republican leaders, since the Cardinal did not name Skelos) apparently promised the leader of the Catholic Church in America that gay marriage wouldn't pass--right before they put it up for a vote and passed it with the help of four turncoat Republicans. This is consistent with what we've seen over and over again: political leaders have no problem lying to bishops in order to keep the Catholic Church from gearing up for a fight.

Surprise surprise, politicians about to betray marriage have no problem lying to boot:

Cardinal Dolan has revealed for the first time that New York’s gay marriage vote caught the Catholic Church flat-footed — insisting it was “burned” by Senate Republicans who claimed the legislation didn’t have a prayer.

“We got burned last year when we were told the redefinition of marriage didn’t have much of a chance — and of course it did,” Dolan told the Daily News as he prepared for Monday’s annual Albany lobbying trip.

“Our Senate leaders, we highly appreciated them being with us all along,” he explained. “When they kind of assured us it didn’t have much of a chance — not that we let up, but we probably would have been much more vigorous and even more physically present if we knew there was a chance.” -- New York Daily News

By NOM Staff | Posted in Marriage, New York, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (13)

Brian Brown on 5 States Voting on Marriage: "We View it as a Massive Opportunity for a National Referendum"

March 12, 2012 at 11:00 am

Marching orders from our President Brian Brown, in the Associated Press:

Foes and supporters of same-sex marriage are gearing up for five costly and bruising statewide showdowns in the coming months on an issue that evenly divides Americans.

It's an election year subplot sure to stir up heated emotions — even beyond the confines of North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, Maine and Washington state. National advocacy groups will be deeply engaged, and advertising is likely to surface from each side that outrages the other.

"It's crunch time," said Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, the paramount fundraiser for opponents of gay marriage. "We view it as a massive opportunity for a national referendum."

Brown predicts same-sex marriage will be rebuffed in all five states, while gay-marriage supporters hope they can score at least a few victories and break a long losing streak. Since 1998, 31 states have had ballot measures related to same-sex marriage, and in every state the opponents ended up prevailing.

... "It's going to be a big challenge, but I think we're up to it," said NOM's Brown. "All we need is enough to get our message out."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Marriage, Marriage Election Watch, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (10)

Video: UK Popstar Says State Should Arrest Clergy Who Speak Against Gay Marriage

March 12, 2012 at 10:00 am

The Christian Institute:

Openly gay popstar Will Young believes vicars who describe gay marriage as ‘abhorrent’ should be prosecuted for hate crimes.

He made the comments live on national television as BBC1’s Question Time debated Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s remarks about same-sex marriage.

Daily Mail columnist Janice Atkinson, who was also on the show, warned that clergy could be “called into a police station” for sharing their beliefs on traditional marriage in strong terms to which Mr Young replied “yes, rightfully so”.

...Mrs Atkinson added that Britain would be “walking into a police state if we go down that route”.

Earlier in the programme the popstar claimed that if Cardinal O’Brien had made similar remarks regarding race or religion “he’d be in court now”.

Government minister Eric Pickles said, “for merely expressing the view that it is wrong in the view of his religion, to turn that into a hate crime would be the worst kind of repression”.