This week, I want to announce a brand-new website we're launching today. The Marriage Election: A Look at Marriage and Presidential Politics is a service NOM will be providing throughout the rest of the election season, to educate voters on how marriage fits into the national debate over who will be our country's next President. In addition, this site will cover breaking marriage news as it relates to the Presidential race, including any mentions of marriage that might come up in the official candidates' debates (such as tonight's showdown between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan). Please visit the site today, and pass this great resource on to your friends!
University Attacks Free Speech
Dr. Angela McCaskill.
You may not know her name but you should. She is the first black deaf woman to be granted a PhD by Gallaudet University, a national university for deaf people.
Until a few days ago, she was Gallaudet's chief diversity officer.
You can see her discussing her job here:
But then someone complained about Dr. McCaskill.
Was it about her job performance? Did she make a mistake? Fail in a key duty? Treat someone wrongly?
No. The complaint against Dr. Angela McCaskill consists of one fact and one fact alone: she exercised her core civil rights by signing a petition to put the question of marriage on the ballot for the voters of Maryland.
That's it. But that in itself was enough for Gallaudet to relieve Dr. McCaskill of her responsibilities and to place her on paid leave while they "investigate" her!
This is a very sad day in America. African-American Christians, it seems to me, are paying a disproportionate price for exercising these core civil rights to speak, to vote, to donate and to organize on behalf of marriage and traditional views on sexuality. Consider these examples:
Crystal Dixon, an administrator at the University of Toledo, was fired after writing a letter (as a private citizen) to the editor of the Toledo Free Press. The letter respectfully opposed the notion of gay rights and explained God's plan for human beings. Activists later tried to keep a city from hiring her.
In New Jersey, a special education teacher, Viki Knox, wrote a message on her personal Facebook page criticizing the school's promotion of a "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month." Activist groups and others have demanded that she be fired, and have planned protests targeting her. The lawyer who began the attack on Knox said: "Hateful public comments from a teacher cannot be tolerated. She has a right to say it. But she does not have a right to keep her job after saying it."
This week The Star-Ledger reports that, under ongoing pressure and threats not only to her job but to her pension, Viki Knox has chosen to resign!
And in Michigan, Julea Ward, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan University, was dismissed from that school's counseling program after asking for permission to refer a client to another counselor because she was uncomfortable affirming that client's same-sex relationship.
But there's something especially chilling in this most recent case regarding the treatment of Dr. McCaskill, who simply exercised her civil right to sign a petition in favor of putting a certain question before her state's voters.
It would be shocking to the conscience if this happened anywhere. But here's another thing you may not know about Gallaudet: it's not a private university! It's a Congressionally chartered corporation, with a legal obligation to report each year to the Secretary of Education, who must approve any transfer or sale of real property owned by the university. Traditionally, the diplomas at Gallaudet are even signed by the President of the United States.
I hope Gallaudet University does the right thing. If not, I hope the President of the United States will make it clear that this injustice must stop. As a final failsafe, I hope Congress recognizes its responsibility to affirm how this behavior is unacceptable in a government-affiliated institution.
Let me make it clear that there is a principle at stake here as important as marriage itself: No American, whether he or she is for or against gay marriage, should be afraid to vote, to sign petitions, to donate or to speak—with civility of course!—in support of that position.
Even Marylanders for Marriage Equality campaign manager, Josh Levin, says that Angela McCaskill "should be reinstated immediately."
I thank Mr. Levin for that, and I hope and pray that he's doing that out of conviction and not just because he knows that this story is a real problem for his goal of getting voters to approve gay marriage in Maryland—the record of gay rights activists is not very good in this regard.
Please join me in praying for Dr. McCaskill, and praying that justice be done in her case.
NOM's Frank Schubert: A Leader in Protecting Marriage
The New York Times has noticed the genius of our own Frank Schubert in an article entitled, "One Man Guides the Fight Against Gay Marriage."
Gay rights leaders despise Mr. Schubert, who has devoted himself to the issue in recent years, for what they call his misleading arguments. They have also learned to fear him for messages that are less openly harsh than those voiced by many other opponents of gay rights: a strategy aimed at reassuring the moderate voters who decide such elections that barring gays and lesbians from marriage does not make them bigots. [...]
"Everyone has a right to love who they choose," says an ad now running in Minnesota, "but nobody has a right to redefine marriage."
Telling voters they are not prejudiced if they vote against same-sex marriage is "diabolically smart and creative," said Fred Sainz, vice president for communications of the Human Rights Campaign, a national advocacy group for gay rights."
They despise us, but here's the thing—Frank Schubert doesn't despise anybody:
Mr. Schubert, who has a lesbian sister raising two children in a domestic partnership, says, "It's hurtful to know that many people think I dislike gays and lesbians and wish them harm."
He spoke during an interview here in Maryland's capital, where he was making last-minute tweaks to television ads and meeting with local organizers in what seems likely to be a close race.
Mr. Schubert expects to spend some $12.5 million over all, with one-third of the total provided by the National Organization for Marriage, the largest private group financing campaigns against same-sex marriage.
Of course, brilliant as Frank is and as indisputably valuable as his expertise has been in winning victory after victory for marriage in blue state after blue state, no one man is our guide.
God is the author of marriage, not man.
But God grants us talented men and women to do his work in every era, and we're very grateful that he's given us Frank Schubert!
Biden "Sold Out to the System"
Charlie Spiering of the Washington Examiner reports on a new video released in anticipation of tonight's Vice Presidential debate. I'm sure you won't want to miss this!
Grassroots organization Let Freedom Ring releases a new ad criticizing Vice President Joe Biden for failing to live up to his Catholic faith by supporting same-sex marriage.
The ad features Democrat Jo Ann Nardelli, the first Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Democratic Women.
Nardelli explains that although she supported Biden in 2008, she signals disappointment that he led the charge to support same-sex marriage.
"When I heard Vice President Biden speak about same-sex marriage and I knew the platform for President Obama was same-sex marriage. I know definitely that Mama Biden would not go with," she explains. "I as a devout Catholic could no longer uphold and stand for that platform. I had to stand up for my faith."
She adds, "Vice President Biden, I think he sold out to the system."
Here's the new ad:
And just a reminder, don't forget to follow election news like this at our new website, http://www.MarriageElection.com!
Don't Miss a Great Opportunity with NOM's "Million Dollar Match for Marriage"
Will you stand this week for God's vision for marriage by giving whatever you can to NOM's Million Dollar Match for Marriage?
A generous donor has agreed to triple whatever you give in the urgent next few weeks before the election! Can you give $1? It will become $3 for marriage. Give $10? You will have given marriage $30 for this fight. Has God given you the means to donate $100 or more? Imagine your $100 becoming $300, or your $500 becoming $1500!
Now is the time to take your stand for marriage, because you are the difference between victory and defeat. You can make victory happen, with God's grace!
Thanks to all of you who have responded to this key challenge. As I write, I can report some great news: we've already raised about $150,000 for marriage, toward our million-dollar goal. Because of you and your sacrificial giving, the marriage fight now has nearly half-a-million dollars more to win with!
We can't stop there. Will you pass this email on to a friend and ask if they have $10 for marriage this week?
If you haven't given yet, please won't you give right now when it means more than ever, with a historic victory within our grasp?
Look at the face of Dr. Angela McCaskill and all those Christians (and others of good faith) who have sacrificed so much standing for marriage—and please give what you can right now.
And I ask you again please to pray for marriage, for Frank Schubert, for Dr. McCaskill—and for God's continued blessings on our beloved country.
I will never stop fighting for you and for our shared values. And I will never stop being grateful to you for all you've made possible.
“Dr McCaskill’s decision to sign the petition does not automatically declare her support for or against same-sex marriage. It merely indicates that she wants to see the decision made by the people and not the legislature. But if her employer is able to restrict her right to engage in the petition-gathering phase of democracy, are they also allowed to enter the voting booth and dictate how she votes?
London Mayor Boris Johnson says the nation needs “to move beyond the Stone Age” by redefining marriage.
In Maryland, Maine and Washington, it's an up-or-down vote on legalizing same-sex marriage. In Minnesota, there's a measure to place a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution, as 30 other states have done previously.
Had a D.C. referendum been at issue, Gallaudet University President T. Alan Hurwitz's actions today placing chief diversity officer Dr. Angela McCaskill on administrative leave because she "participated in a legislative initiative " could even have constituted a criminal violation, UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh told BuzzFeed.
"...The 85-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church, who was an expert at the Council known as "Vatican II" and one of its most reformist voices, has made the new evangelism a centrepiece of his papacy since being elected in 2005.
