Gay Marriage Watch

It is not entirely unfounded to claim that the past year has been a humiliation for those who had previously been confident about the inevitable forward march of gay rights, particularly same-sex marriage. California’s Proposition 8, widely expected to fail, was inscribed in the state constitution in November 2008. Then came Maine; a legislative victory for gay marriage was followed by a resounding “people’s veto” of the newly signed law. The New York Senate, wary, perhaps, of endorsing a position rejected by the voters of another solidly Democratic state, voted overwhelmingly against same-sex marriage. Finally, a bill to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey failed by a wide margin in the State Senate.

If this recent string of events has chastened and humiliated gay rights advocates, it has brought recognition and prestige to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Claiming as its mission “protect[ing] marriage and the faith communities that sustain it,” NOM has undoubtedly emerged as the leading organization opposing same-sex marriage. This invites the question: to what does NOM owe its rapid and powerful rise?

Many gay rights supporters acknowledge that part of the reason behind NOM’s success may be the organization’s conscious decision to limit its mission to opposing marriage for gay and lesbian people and to avoid the bombastic, far-reaching, and overtly religious rhetoric of such Christian conservatives as James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell. These same gay-rights supporters are quick to point out that the mere absence of egregiously homophobic material in NOM’s campaigns does not mean that the organization or its core membership is in any way opposed to or removed from the virulent and religiously motivated anti-gay sentiment that characterizes so much of the Christian right. Gay rights leaders are correct on both these counts; unfortunately, they have, by and large, failed to identify, articulate, and expose the system that has enabled NOM to exercise its current degree of influence over ordinary Americans.

Full Story from the Bi-College News
Click here for gay marriage resources.
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More than three months after Mainers voted down same-sex marriage, the organization that provided much of the money to the traditional marriage camp is still fighting to block the state from forcing disclosure of their donor lists. This past week, the National Organization for Marriage lost another skirmish in the larger legal battle over its campaign finances.

U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby in Portland overruled NOM’s objections to having to turn over donor lists and correspondence between NOM and Stand for Marriage Maine regarding the campaign to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law. The court has yet to rule on the larger case challenging Maine’s campaign reporting laws, however.

The documents being sought — and what they say about who donated to NOM and why — are key to a Maine Ethics Commission investigation into whether the group’s failure to disclose donors violated state campaign finance laws.

Full Story from istocknews
Click here for gay marriage resources in Maine.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

What’s that adage about spin – say it long enough, hard enough, loud enough and eventually it will take on the cloak of truth? Well, the latest missive from National Organization Executive Director Brian Brown reads more like a fairy tale – showing that this Emperor has no clothes.

Brown’s email to supporters was in response a San Francisco Chronicle column published Sunday ostensibly “outing” Judge Vaugn Walker – who was not in the closet. That bit of “news” was not really new – which blogger Michael Petrelis pointed out with a Cheshire cat grin since he was the one who first raised the issue publicly in July. Queerty picked it up as a stand-alone story, while other bloggers and reporters referenced it in passing or didn’t feel it was relevant to Walker’s ability to try the case. After all, if Walker’s sexual orientation is an issue in him deciding an LGBT-related case, well then, what about a straight judge who’s been divorced judging a case involving marital relations? Indeed, US Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas would have to recuse himself from any case involving gender equality or sexual harassment.

Here’s Brown’s email so I’m not accused of taking anything out of context- after which I’ll have some fun with facts.

Full Story from the Huffington Post
Click here for gay marriage resources in California.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, has spent $50,000 on a wave of robocalls into Massachusetts on Scott Brown’s behalf, according to a filing Saturday with the Federal Elections Commission.

Brown opposes same-sex marriage, and Coakley supports it, though the issue hasn’t been central in Massachusetts, where gay couples have been marrying since 2004, and where it’s no longer a front-burner political issue. Brown’s gay defenders say he opposes a federal constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, and shares President Obama’s view that it’s a matter for the states.

Full Story from Politico

Click here for gay marriage resources in Massachusetts.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

The race is on in New Jersey — in both lobbying and spending — as advocates on both sides fight try to gain advantage in the latest same sex marriage battleground before the new chief executive takes office. Supporters of gay marriage are frantically pushing to get a bill to outgoing Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine before he leaves office next month. His successor, Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie, has vowed to veto any such measure passed by the Legislature after he takes office Jan. 19.

But if Corzine can sign the bill into law before then, Christie and opponents of same sex marriage will have to wait at least until the next state legislative elections in 2011 to fight back.

“This is the whole ballgame,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which has spent more than $600,000 in radio and TV ads and robo-calls against same-sex marriage.

Full Story from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/09/advocates-tap-war-chest-battle-sex-marriage-new-jersey/?test=latestnews

Click here for gay marriage resources in New Jersey.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Fred Karger’s battle with the National Organization for Marriage has heated up considerably.

The anti same-sex marriage organization, which purports to be a 501(c) (4) “social welfare organization” for tax purposes but is actually a high-powered political organization — more on that later — has demanded that Karger appear for a deposition with all of the correspondence and financial records for his group, Californians Against Hate, from January to date.

NOM is suing the state of California and many state officials over public disclosure laws, and NOM apparently thinks Karger’s e-mails, faxes, correspondence, financial records and all information pertaining to Californians Against Hate will prove that adhering to state law opened up its donors to retaliation, because Karger launched several successful boycotts of donors’ businesses.

Now NOM on its website “calls out” Karger by name: “NOM to Fred Karger: NOM will not be intimidated by politically motivated harassment.” So this is obviously a punitive retaliatory action designed to “intimidate” Karger through legal means. Back at’cha.

Full Story from the Coastline Pilot: http://www.coastlinepilot.com/articles/2009/10/30/blogs_and_columns/lumberyard_logs/cpt-canyontocove103009.txt

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

A Princeton Borough-based organization that is the leading financial backer of an anti-gay marriage campaign in Maine must identify its contributors, a federal judge ruled this week.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group founded by Princeton University politics professor Robert George in 2007, has given more than $1.5 million to a group that is urging voters to overturn Maine’s law allowing gay marriage.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed the measure into law in May, making Maine the first state to create gay marriage through a governor’s signature rather than a court ruling. The referendum takes place Tuesday.

Full Story from NJ.com: http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-18/125688180673960.xml&coll=5

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Maine.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

By now, you probably know about the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district. Republican John M. McHugh has held this seat since 2003. He resigned on September 21, 2009 to become United States Secretary of the Army. This seat represents about 650,000 hard working, mostly blue collar, solidly Republican folks on New York’s Canadian border. The median income is about $35,000. The local Republican Party nominated Dede Scozzafava who is a socially liberal fiscal conservative. That is a creature well known in New York politics.

Well, that didn’t sit well with the Christian Conservatives so they came up with an anti-choice, anti-gay marriage candidate, Doug Hoffman, to run as a Conservative. This has brought a wide assortment of wingnuts to this rural area. These include Sarah Palin, The Susan B. Anthony People, Catholics for America, Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, Phyllis’ embalmer, Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, Marilyn Musgrave and the Club for Growth. Actually, the Club for Growth is among the largest donors to Hoffman’s campaign. Given that they are a group of very rich people trying to prevent very rich people from paying their fair share of taxes, they have the challenge of getting these good folk to vote against their own economic interests.

National Organization for Marriage was among the earliest detractors of Scozzafava and one of the earliest supporters of Hoffman. In an email last week they claimed to have spent $150,000 on this campaign. Either Brian Brown is lying – again – or they haven’t reported the expenditure. On the other hand, the Human Rights Campaign PAC has donated $4,000 to Scozzafava.

Full Story from Tips-Q: http://www.tips-q.com/1531178-ny-23rd-cd-saga-nom-v-hrc

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in New York.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

A federal judge will rule Wednesday on whether the state may require two national organizations that are working to repeal Maine’s gay-marriage law to disclose their contributors.

The National Organization for Marriage and American Principles in Action have challenged the state campaign finance laws that apply to ballot question committees, arguing that requiring them to disclose their contributors violates the free speech protections in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“The requirements here … are sufficient to chill parties from supporting the plaintiff and others,” the lawyer for the national groups, Josiah Neeley, told Justice D. Brock Hornby during Monday’s hearing in U.S. District Court.

Full Story from the Kennebec Journal: http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/7025090.html

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Maine.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

There’s a major call to action going on among tweeters in New York and nationwide. GaySocialites.com Associate Editor King Ralphy, DJ Samantha Ronson and others are drawing awareness for an anti-gay marriage ad running on KISS FM 98.7.

The ad has also infiltrated other markets where local government is currently working to legalize gay marriage. LGBT advocates want your to call the station and express your concern for this hate laced advertisement.

You can hear that horrible, homophobic commercial above.

Full Story from Gay Socialites: http://gaysocialites.com/2009/10/new_yorks_987_kiss_fm_offends_1.html

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.