Dear Marriage Supporter,

Last Thursday, the voters in New York State finally got a chance to have their say.

As I told you in last week's letter, the primaries recently held in New York are incredibly important to the future of marriage.

Powerful donors tried—and are still trying—to remake the Republican Party in their own image: namely, as pro-gay marriage supporters.

Getting New York Republicans to bring up and pass a gay marriage bill was the first step in that plan. The four Republicans who voted for gay marriage were hailed as heroes and showered with accolades—and massive quantities of cold hard cash. They were supposed to sail to victory, thus disproving the "myth" that voters care about marriage.

But on Thursday, the voters got their turn, and to the shock and surprise of the pundits and establishment hacks, they tossed out long-term incumbents in both parties who had betrayed their constituents' values and voted for gay marriage.

And thanks to your help, the National Organization for Marriage has been at the forefront of these victories.

Here I am on Christian Broadcast News, speaking about this breaking story:

On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg both expressed sadness that these pro-gay marriage Republicans were in so much trouble with voters because of their vote.

Cuomo even openly admitted that he couldn't help them in the primaries:

"If you're voting against them because of marriage equality, my support is not going to help," he said. "And you could argue that my support may have actually been a negative in that context, because if it was about marriage equality, I would have been a great reminder of the marriage-equality vote, and I would have gone out of my way to speak about the marriage-equality vote, frankly."

Mr. Bloomberg had donated $10,300 to each of the four Republican senators who'd turned on their constituents and voted for gay marriage, and had also hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for them. He tried to offer them consolation:

"No matter what happens in the election," Mr. Bloomberg said, "they're going to have the satisfaction of knowing for the rest of their life they stood up and voted their conscience."

Did their consciences also tell them to mislead the voters? To vote "no" on gay marriage, to run against gay marriage, and then to vote "yes" at the last minute after the money talked?

Perhaps next time their consciences will have the courtesy to tell the voters the truth.

NOM PAC NY also played a key role in these victories, and the newspapers noticed:

"It wasn't supposed to be this way!" was the Daily Beast's cri de coeur!

Gay marriage backers assured them that they would remember their vote for every Election Day hence—even if the candidates were running against Democrats.

"We are in it for the long haul with any supporter of gay marriage," Brian Ellner, the lead lobbyist behind the effort, said in June 2011 as he was trying to convince the four to support the bill. "We have not lost a single supporter because of their support of marriage equality in an election and we are certainly not going to start now."

But the results so far have left supporters of gay marriage fearful that the primary will dissuade other Republicans around the country from supporting same sex marriage.

... "The message we sent was pretty simple," said Brian Brown, executive director of NOM. "If you are a Republican and you vote for [gay] marriage, you are going to lose."

According to the Associated Press:

"Republican primary voters in New York punished two incumbents last week who voted to legalize same-sex marriage, firing a potential warning shot nationwide toward GOP lawmakers who could soon face tough votes in their states.

Two of the four veteran—and long-secure—Republican senators in New York who voted for same-sex marriage a year ago await counts of absentee ballots as they sweat out the political fight of their lives. A third announced his retirement this year in the face of strong opposition to his gay marriage vote.

"Any Republican legislator faced with this vote is going to think twice," said Robert Bellafiore, a political commentator and former top aide to Republican Gov. George Pataki of New York. "I don't think there is any question this going to have a chilling effect across the country."

Well, we certainly hope so! Betraying the values and views of the people who put you in office is always a bad idea!

John Fund in National Review put it the most simply in his editorial, "Gay Marriage Backers Face Consequences in N.Y. Primaries":

The results from Thursday's low-turnout primary aren't complete given uncounted absentee ballots. But it is clear the National Organization for Marriage and other traditional-marriage groups drew some blood.

NY State Senator Roy McDonald was known to be in some trouble, but Senator Stephen Saland's electoral problems came as a huge shock. Feisty challenger Neil DiCarlo was given no chance at all. Saland was not just a long-time incumbent, he was 'Mr. Moneybags', outspending DiCarlo 40 to 1! On election night, DiCarlo was just 42 votes behind with hundreds of absentee ballots still being counted.

As the Albany Times Union admits, the primary results show that "grass-roots insurgents are at least an even match for the party's establishment candidates."

Senator Mark Grisanti was the only pro-gay marriage Republican to win his primary on Tuesday night, but we still have a chance—and a good one!—to defeat him in November.

Why? Because by betraying marriage, Grisanti lost the Conservative Party endorsement to Chuck Swanick in a district that is 60% Democratic. The Buffalo News reports on Grisanti's grim prospects in November:

...If some of the more conservative GOP voters turn against Grisanti and vote for Swanick over the same-sex marriage issue, Amodeo said, that could prove an unbeatable obstacle to the incumbent.

The New York primary election results should have come as no surprise to the pundits and the politicians (remember Dede Scozzafava?!) except too many believe the untruths persistently spread by gay marriage activists and a compliant media.

The New York victories come on top of a win in Minnesota last month where a Minneapolis state representative, Rep. Steve Smith, one of the longest serving Republicans in the Statehouse, lost his GOP primary. As the AP notes, "His opposition to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was one of the reasons."

The victories in New York also follow on the heels of the defeat of several pro-gay marriage GOP incumbents in New Hampshire; and last but not least, the epic failure of an attempt by out-of-state billionaire Tim Gill to flood the Rhode Island Legislature with pro-gay marriage Democrats through a tsunami of money. Five of six of those efforts failed—in the Democratic primary!

Money matters—and believe me, I'm deeply grateful to each of you who have given a widow's mite of your time and treasure to help win this great fight for marriage— but money isn't everything. When you have truth, history, and the American people on your side—and when you strive to take God's side on something as important as His creation of marriage—amazing things can happen!

Four states now face tough gay marriage battles, but with your help and the grace of God, we're going to win them all!

In Iowa, we've helped launch the "NoWiggins Bus", as the Sioux City Journal recently noted. Our special thanks go out to Sen. Rick Santorum and Gov. Bobby Jindal for joining the effort to oust Judge Wiggins, one of the Iowa judges who voted to impose gay marriage on the people of Iowa without their consent!

... "The judiciary's usurpation of authority in recent years is completely unacceptable," Santorum said in a statement. "It is obviously clear the people's Constitution gives the judicial branch the least power, and yet these appointed judges continuously legislate from the bench whether it is gay marriage in Iowa, collective bargaining in Wisconsin, or resulting in the death of millions of lives caused by the opinion of Roe v. Wade."

The "No Wiggins" bus tour—sponsored by CitizenLink, Patriot Voices, the Family Leader, the National Organization for Marriage and CatholicVote.org—seeks to mobilize opposition among Iowa voters to oust Wiggins.

You will remember that in 2010 the first three judges who invented a right to gay marriage in the Iowa Constitution came up for election—and for the first time in history, Iowa voters turned out all three!

It will be a tougher battle this time, as pro-gay marriage money will swarm the state. But with God's help, and yours, we will stay in this fight, too—and win!

Some good news breaking from Down Under: The Australian House and Senate massively defeated a pro-gay marriage bill:

With the House of Representatives rejecting Labor MP Stephen Jones' bill 98-42 earlier in the week, the Senate rejected a similar bill from Labor Senator Trish Crossin 26-41 yesterday afternoon.

Here at home, college students are fighting back against intolerance by standing up and Eatin Mor' Chikin!—according to a story in a new online paper, The College Fix, edited by the young and brilliant Nathan Harden (author of God and Sex at Yale:

The University of Maryland's student newspaper, for example, recently reported that sales are up at its campus Chick-fil-A... "Sales rose dramatically during the first two weeks of school following the controversy around Cathy's statement."

That must be why the newspapers are circulating misleading reports the Chick-Fil-A has somehow cut funding to NOM (which has never received money from the company or from the Winshape Foundation, its charitable arm).

We continue, therefore, to urge you to "Eat More Chikin" on Wednesdays throughout the campaign season, continuing to show your support for the rights of every American to give their views on marriage without threats or harassment!

Elsewhere, columnist George Will turned his discerning eye on one of those threats in the New Mexico wedding photography case:

Elaine Huguenin, who with her husband operates Elane Photography in New Mexico, asks only to be let alone.

But instead of being allowed a reasonable zone of sovereignty in which to live her life in accordance with her beliefs, she is being bullied by people wielding government power.

As Will points out, the same-sex couples seeking a wedding photographer (in a state that does not recognize gay marriage!) could have shrugged their shoulders and said "live and let live"; instead they went after Elaine's livelihood using government power. Will writes, "Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks."

And did you see the comments of British actor Rupert Everett, one of the first stars to come out as gay? He told the media his Mom wanted him to have a wife and kids, because "She thinks children need a father and a mother and I agree with her," he said. "I can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads."

After the predictable furor erupted, Everett stood by his comments, telling the British talk show "This Morning": "The good news on this is I'm not applying for any sort of public office. I don't want to be a (Member of Parliament), I don't want to be in a council, I don't want to be the head of (actors' union) Equity. I'm just an individual with my own life and the things I want to do myself."

I don't know Rupert Everett's views on gay marriage. But it is important to remember that gay people are not a monolith. They are our neighbors and fellow citizens with diverse views. There are homosexuals who believe marriage is the union of husband and wife—and I want to reiterate: if you want to help protect marriage, we welcome you to join NOM in the fight!

A last small piece of good news: Recent polling by Public Policy Polling and the liberal-leaning Maine People's Resource Center show gay marriage support in Maine to be declining—this, in spite of weeks of ads being run by same-sex marriage proponents to garner support. Another internal poll by JMC Analytics and Polling, the first of its kind run by a non pro-gay marriage source, showed support for gay marriage falling even further than the other polls showed: below the 50% margin, in fact from 48% to 44%!

The AP reported on September 10 that in Maine, the "National Organization for Marriage has made a $500,000 matching contribution to fight same-sex marriage."

So, we are not done. We have just begun to fight.

We are sending support and prayers into all four states with marriage fights on the ballot this November—thanks to you, we can help voters wherever we are needed to stand up for God's truth about marriage.

Finally, there's that other important election in November: for President of the United States.

As the gay marriage cases head to the Supreme Court, it's vitally important that we have a president who is going to defend marriage and the rights of millions of voters to organize, speak, vote, donate in defense of God's vision of marriage.

On that point, in case you missed it, here's Mitt Romney's video message to the Values Voters Summit, wherein he promises to defend marriage, not redefine it:

We agree, America needs a President who will respect our traditional values

Register to vote. Register your friends. Register your family. And make your voice heard this November!

At NOM, we will fight to make your voice and your values heard—to show that together we can fight for the right—and win!

As Rev. Rick Warren said, we who are believers should take our view of marriage into our lives—by living chastely and faithfully and lovingly within our marriages and teaching our children to grow up to be men and women who do the same.

But we should also take our views and values into the voting booth, without apology.

"You don't need to apologize for voting for a Christian worldview which stands up for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex and the sanctity of marriage. You don't need to apologize for that because everybody votes what they believe," Rev. Warren told thousands of Saddleback Church attendees at the launch of a new sermon series.

The Southern California pastor said three issues (are non-negotiables for Christians. Christian believers may disagree on health care or tax policy, he said, but we must be firm on is protecting the unborn, viewing sex as holy, and protecting traditional marriage.

"If you call yourself a Christian, you need to line up with what God says is the original intent of all three of these things," he preached.

Whether we are Catholic or Protestant, LDS, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or nonbeliever, we are called in these difficult days to stand up for core truths about human beings everywhere: we are born male and female, and called to come together in love in this sacred bond called "marriage."

Whether we individually are married or not, we can stand up and defend the great truths of Genesis.

We can fight for marriage and, with God's help, win!