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Mark Your Calendar! NOM Marriage Tour Comes to Augusta!

July 8, 2010 at 5:03 pm

The NOM Marriage Tour 2010: One Man, One Woman is coming to Augusta!

Mark your calendar now for next Wednesday, July 14th. The NOM Tour RV will be rolling into Augusta Wednesday morning, with the rally in Capitol Park, across from the State House starting at noon. Click here for directions.

Joining me in speaking at the rally will be Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute and Rev. Bob Emrich, Director of the Maine Jeremiah Project. Dr. Morse is a noted speaker and economist, formerly affiliated with Yale University and the University of Chicago, now committed to promoting an intellectual and social climate favorable to marriage, reaching out to young adults with a positive, upbeat message of lifelong married love.

Rev. Emrich is a long-time veteran of the marriage battles in Maine, helping to direct the Question One campaign last fall. As Director of the Maine Jeremiah Project, he is building a grassroots coalition of social conservatives, organizations and churches, educating and equipping Christians to engage in the culture.

Most importantly, the rally provides YOU with the opportunity to come out and connect with other marriage supporters in your home state. Perhaps you will meet up with volunteers you met during last fall’s campaign. No doubt you’ll make some new friends as well!

If at all possible, I hope you’ll take a long lunch hour next Wednesday and join us in Capitol Park as we stand for marriage, kicking off NOM’s Marriage Tour 2010!

See you there! And feel free to honk or wave a greeting if you see us on the highway!

By Brian Brown | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

OneNewsNow: Marriage Tour interview with Brian Brown

July 8, 2010 at 12:57 pm

NOM President Brian Brown explains the importance of this summer’s Marriage Tour. Click the “hear report” link at the top right of the page to listen to the audio interview.

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

6 Days Until Summer for Marriage Tour

July 8, 2010 at 10:37 am

In just six days, NOM’s Summer for Marriage Tour 2010 will begin in Augusta, Maine, visiting 19 states and 23 cities over five weeks. Over these five weeks, we will meet thousands of Americans from across the eastern U.S. who are committed to protecting marriage in their own communities. And better yet, each person attending a Marriage Tour rally will be connected with others in his or her own hometown who can join together in making a difference.

I hope you’ll plan to join us. Click here to view the full tour schedule.

Next week’s highlights!

Wednesday, 7/14 – Augusta, Maine. Our first stop is in Augusta, Maine next Wednesday (7/14) at noon, as we rally in Capitol Park across from the State House. I will be speaking, along with Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Maine Jeremiah Project Director Bob Emrich, and other local leaders.

Thursday, 7/15 – Manchester, New Hampshire. Next Thursday, July 15^th, we’ll be in Manchester, New Hampshire with Cornerstone Policy Research Executive Director Kevin Smith, gathering at noon at City Hall Plaza, 900 Elm Street, in Manchester.

Saturday, 7/17 – Albany, New York. Albany is Saturday’s destination, as we gather in West Capitol Park at 2:00pm. Confirmed speakers for our NY rally include Rev. Jason McGuire, President of New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation, along with Dr. Morse and myself.

Sunday, 7/18 – Providence, Rhode Island. And on Sunday afternoon, July 18th, the tour will arrive in Providence, Rhode Island for a rally with NOM Rhode Island director Chris Plante, Attorney Scott Spear, and either Bishop Tobin or Auxiliary Bishop Evans from the Diocese of Providence. The Rhode Island rally will begin at 2:00pm on the South Steps of the Rhode Island State House.

Please visit www.marriagetour2010.com for the complete tour schedule and information, as well as the latest updates including tour photos, video footage, and more. I hope to see you on the road this summer!

By NOM Staff | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

Argentinians Turn In 635,000 Signatures Opposing SSM

July 8, 2010 at 9:13 am

Nothing like this has been seen on this issue in South America before:

Zenit: Some 635,000 signatures in defense of marriage and family were presented to the Argentinean Senate, as legislators consider legalizing same-sex unions and adoption by same-sex couples.

Senator Liliana Negre de Alonso, president of the Senate's General Legislation Commission, received Monday representatives of various institutions who handed her 524,000 signatures and a statement supported by more than 400 organizations. A separate 110,000 signatures were also turned in from people who are urging lawmakers to put the issue before a popular vote.

The five spokesmen presenting the signatures affirmed that they represent the will of the people and that the nation's Senate cannot ignore it.

One of the representatives, Nicolás Perkins, speaking on behalf of a children's advocacy group, lamented that lawmakers make themselves oblivious to thousands of Argentineans who "seem non-existent because we don't appear in the media."

"I am convinced that in the manifestations that occurred [...] 'the great homeland' was seen," Perkins said. "In the name of the 524,000 wills we ask you, Senators, to assume the will of the hundreds of thousands of silent Argentineans."

Senator Negre de Alonso promised to make the signatures and the material collected at the marches, such as photos and videos, known to the other senators before the vote they were scheduled to make today. Their decision will determine if the legislation is to be presented to the chamber on July 14. It was already approved by the Chamber of Deputies.

Guillermo Cartasso, of the bishops' commission for legislative issues, observed that "if in a month more than half a million signatures have been collected, there is no doubt that these signatures represent the popular will, and that the senators must not legislate against the common good ..."

Will the government respect the will of the people? Stay tuned.

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

Argentinian Marriage Movement Update

July 7, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Here at NOM we are like the old "Committees of Correspondence" of the American Revolution, getting you information underneath the media's screens. Here's another report from Argentina, where opposition to SSM is gathering intensity:

"I am working very hard in this campaign, yesterday we made a good first step in the Senate, we are raising money for good television spots and people all over the country are finally reacting. We are expecting more than 100,000 people for the march on 13th July, which is a good number for a social mobilization in our country."

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

Marriage Group Fights to Keep Traditional Definition

July 7, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow.com, July 5, 2010, 6:30am

The Summer Marriage Tour 2010: One Man One Woman, a campaign for traditional marriage, is preparing to hit the road.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), will be taking his organization on a month-long bus tour to promote marriage between a man and a woman. He tells OneNewsNow this summer is an important one for marriage.

"The fact is that we're expecting a court decision in California that could invalidate the votes of millions of Americans in 31 states to protect marriage as a union [between] a man and a woman," he explains.

That is a reference to a trial challenging Proposition 8 and the November 2008 vote made by the majority of Californians to preserve traditional marriage. That case is expected to go to the Supreme Court, where he says five justices could create a "constitutional right for homosexual marriage."

With that in mind, NOM plans to accomplish several goals on its tour. The organization hopes its 20 rallies will send a strong message and encourage people to take a stand for traditional marriage.

Brown thinks that will "make clear, especially to the courts, that the people aren't going to stand for activist judges to overturn the will of the voters. We're going to stand up and let Congress and the courts know that we want our vote to be respected and not overturned."

The NOM president adds that the tour will also show that proponents of traditional marriage are well organized and set to battle Congress and the courts if they try to change the definition of marriage.

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

AP: Presbyterians Consider Redefining Marriage

July 7, 2010 at 7:26 pm

From the Associated Press out of Minneapolis, where the Presbyterian Church (USA) is holding its General Assembly:

"This week's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will consider redefining marriage to include same-sex couples and allowing ministers to perform same-sex weddings.

“The Rev. Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, believes those sorts of initiatives are to blame for the denomination's declining membership. Her group supports upholding the church's traditional definition of marriage.

The PCUSA's newly-elected moderator, Cynthia Bolbach, supports gay marriage but told the assembly on Saturday that the denomination has become paralyzed. Fowler says that's what happens when a church body becomes disconnected from its head -- Jesus Christ."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

Joe Solmonese's anti-Mormon Fantasies

July 7, 2010 at 10:48 am

In a fundraising email last week, Joe Solmonese, head of the gigantic Human Rights Campaign, said this about a new film called 8: The Mormon Proposition: "In the film, secret documents from a Mormon whistleblower show how the Mormon Church helped create a front group before Prop. 8 (the National Organization for Marriage) and stayed out of the spotlight in California."

A film review in the New York Times said something similar. I don't know how to react to this. On the one hand I'm disgusted with the implied religious bigotry. Mormons in California have just as much right as anyone else to participate in democracy. Gays are only 2 or 3 percent of the population, too. Does that make HRC's gargantuan $40 million or more budget illegitimate?

We welcome the participation of Mormons, like we do people of other faith communities or people with no faith, who believe marriage is and should remain the union of husband and wife. NOM has members of the LDS church as activists, donors, and board members.

On the other hand, I know something about the founding of NOM -- I was there. And this film and this claim is fantasy. NOM was not founded by Mormons as a secret front group. We have many valued members from the LDS Church since, but no member of the LDS Church hierarchy helped provide seed funding for NOM, or is responsible for NOM or what we did in California to get Prop 8 on the ballot.

Gay rights activists believe they have the power to determine reality. If they say gay unions are marriages, it must be true. If they repeat the Big Lie that NOM is a Mormon front group, it must be true. I say this as a person who believes deeply that Mormons, like other Americans, have every right to participate in coalitions with others to promote core values in politics. But the relentless religious bigotry by gay activists against a religious minority with a long history of persecution in this country is shameful. The wallowing in fantasy (e.g., the belief that if they say it, it becomes true) is just sad.

By Maggie Gallagher | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (10)

Jonathan Rauch urges Supreme Court not to overturn Prop 8

July 6, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Jonathan Rauch argues in the NY Times that the Supreme Court should step back and allow space for a political consensus on marriage/SSM:

But the gay-marriage debate, while assuredly a civil rights argument, is much more than that. It is also a debate about the meaning of marriage, about the pace of change in a conflicted society and about who gets to decide. Whatever the activists on both sides say, nothing in the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to short-circuit the country’s search for a new consensus, either by imposing gay marriage nationwide or by slamming the door on it with an aggressively dismissive ruling. Sometimes the right answer for the courts is to step aside and let politics do its job.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (5)

Supreme Court Analyst: Kagan's DOMA involvement shows "Strong Ideological Bias"

July 6, 2010 at 11:17 am

Ed Whelan over at Bench Memos explains:

"[A]s further evidence that [Kagan] would indulge her strong ideological bias on gay rights as a justice, let’s look at her role in undermining another federal law that she was dutybound to defend: the Defense of Marriage Act.

As I documented a year ago, the Department of Justice during Kagan’s tenure as SG filed a reply brief in a California case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act. In that brief, DOJ gratuitously volunteered that “this Administration does not support DOMA as a matter of policy, believes that it is discriminatory, and supports its repeal."” Further, DOJ gratuitously abandoned strong grounds for defending DOMA, as it asserted that it “does not believe that DOMA is rationally related to any legitimate government interests in procreation and child-rearing.”

As the Volokh Conspiracy’s Dale Carpenter, an ardent proponent of same-sex marriage, put it (emphasis added):

This new position is a gift to the gay-marriage movement, since it was not necessary to support the government’s position. It will be cited by litigants in state and federal litigation, and will no doubt make its way into judicial opinions. Indeed, some state court decisions have relied very heavily on procreation and child-rearing rationales to reject SSM [same-sex marriage] claims. The DOJ is helping knock out a leg from under the opposition to gay marriage.

Here’s what Kagan had to say about the matter at her hearing:

Senator Grassley, this was not a case in which I was the decisionmaker. It was a case in district court, and the Solicitor General’s decisionmaking responsibilities take over at the appellate court level. It was a case in which members of my office and I reviewed some briefs and participated in some discussions.

I agree that Kagan did not have formal decisionmaking responsibility for the district-court reply brief. But on a matter like this, involving various cases throughout the nation at different points in the appeals process, the Civil Division is not going to take a position without coordinating it with theSolicitor General. Kagan concedes that she was personally involved.. . ."

By Maggie Gallagher | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Marriage: Unique for a Reason

July 5, 2010 at 5:36 pm

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage has released a powerful new initiative entitled Marriage: Unique for a Reason.

This new initiative combines a powerful 12-minute video, viewer's guide, and a resource guide for priests, deacons and teachers. Our thanks to Archbishop Kurtz and each of the members of the committee, as well as Father Bransfield for their leadership on this important new initiative, communicating the importance of marriage to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Please take a few minutes to view the video and related educational aids today!

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

Interview with Maggie Gallagher in the Minnesota Catholic Servant

July 5, 2010 at 4:05 pm

Read the Minnesota Catholic Servant's interview with Maggie here.

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

Argentine Marriage Movement is Born

July 2, 2010 at 2:52 pm

The media is not reporting the surprising strength of opposition to same-sex marriage in Argentina (which rumor has it is being pushed primarily by the spouse of the president of Argentina).

I saw this story about the effort to push gay marriage in Argentina and sent it to a friend in Argentina who was there. Here's an eyewitness report:

"Yesterday we had the closing audience at the Senate. Nearly everyone spoke against legalization of ssm. The newspaper obliterated the most relevant speeches. Very important people (former Supreme Court Justices, National Academics of Medicine, a.s.o.) spoke in the defense of marriage (the real one), including: Rodolfo Barra (former Justice of the Supreme Court of Argentina), Reinaldo Vanossi (Permanent Member of the National Academy of Law); Leonardo McLean (Permanent Member of the National Academy of Medicine); Gregorio Badeni (Permanent Member of the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences); and several experts, such as Amparo Llanos (PH.D., correspondent member of the UN), Analìa G. Pastore (Expert in Family Law and Bioethics), Oscar Ameal (PH.D., Director of the Civl Law Department of the National University of Buenos Aires and Judge in the National Court of Appeals); Alejandro Molina (Former Public Defender for Minors in the National Court of Appeal and renowned expert in Family Law); Ursula C. Basset (PH.D, Researcher and Professor in Family Law); and Cristian Conen (Director of the Family Institute of the Austral University); pronounced themselves in favour of protecting marriage of man and woman.

And that this is just the beginning, since, thanks to the ssm legalization movement, the family movement was just born.

We are planning a big march to the Parliament on the 13th July. On Monday, we are going to release our local declaration of citizens in the Senate, with a Press Conference."

The press coverage I saw reported the debate as Christian clergy versus one Jewish rabbi, naturally; Meanwhile several experts, including a former Justice minister, pointed out the bill contradicts the Argentinian Constitution and so would have no legal effect.

Congrats to Argentina, whatever happens, for giving birth to a marriage movement!

By Maggie Gallagher | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (1)

Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) Asks Elena Kagan About SSM

July 2, 2010 at 11:57 am

By NOM Staff | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (8)

Religion Dispatches Comments on Marriage Tours

July 2, 2010 at 9:18 am

Over at Religion Dispatches, Candace Chellew-Hodge is intrigued by the “competing marriage tours” this summer:

At last, the anti-same sex marriage outfit, the National Organization for Marriage and the pro-same sex marriage group Freedom to Marry, have found common ground.

“NOM is saying this is an urgent time for marriage and that a strong marriage makes a strong family and groups of these strong families make strong neighborhoods, strong towns, strong cities and strong states. At FTM we couldn’t agree more. We agree that marriage is vital and important in terms of taking care of our families and that it is key to building strong families whether you are straight or gay,” said Michael Crawford, the New Media Director at Freedom to Marry.

Read the whole article.