Dear Friend of Marriage,
Great news! The New Hampshire Attorney General's office just dismissed a complaint filed earlier this year against NOM by New Hampshire Democratic National Committeewoman Kathleen Sullivan. The complaint was a response to NOM's highly successful "Lynch Lied" television ad campaign, which exposed Gov. Lynch's betrayals on gay marriage, taxes and the budget.
In New Hampshire, as elsewhere, the political class responded by trying to get our ads pulled and misusing election law to attempt to chill the speech of the marriage supporters NOM represents.
But Ms. Sullivan failed in her attempts to silence us--thanks to the Attorney General's office, which upheld the laws of free speech in New Hampshire and our great nation.
This frivolous complaint was yet another example of how same-sex marriage supporters have tried time and again to silence NOM. But never fear; we will not be silenced!
Thanks to all of you who responded to our emergency alert against another threat to freedom, the DISCLOSE Act.
This is an effort to force 501(c)4s like NOM to disclose the names of their donors to the public. We've seen the kind of attacks and harassment which happen to supporters of marriage. This is a transparent attempt to limit political debate by exposing donors to risk of retaliation--and for no purpose. The one thing we know about donors to NOM is they are NOT seeking special tax-funded favors for their private financial interests. People give their time and treasure to support marriage because we believe marriage is the union of husband and wife and should stay that way.
This bill, considered dead, was suddenly revived after House Dems struck a deal with the National Rifle Association to add provisions which would exclude the NRA from onerous disclosure and reporting requirements. Only the biggest dogs on the block win that protection, an example of the way in which Washington works: special deals for fat cats and big dogs, open season on everyone else.
If you haven't contacted your Congressional representatives please do so now. We need you to speak up for all Americans' rights to speak, to organize, to donate, and to vote freely, without fear of retaliation by government or the net-mobocracy.
If you do just one thing for NOM this month, email or call your representatives, and pass this message on to a friend. Together we will prevail!
The Prop 8 trial ended this week with final arguments in the federal courthouse in San Francisco. NOM's Chairman Maggie Gallagher was there liveblogging the event, and once again I have to thank you. With your help we significantly increased our online followers--tomorrow's pro-marriage leaders.
I asked Maggie to tell me, in confidence, how Chuck Cooper, the head of the legal team defending Prop 8, did.
This is what she told me:
"Chuck Cooper did an outstanding job, under difficult circumstances. He's a heckuva lawyer. The judge in these closing arguments once again signaled his support for gay marriage in a variety of ways. We don't expect victory at the trial level. We are optimistic the Supreme Court will uphold our rights and the good of marriage.
"Ted Olson appears to have abandoned any case for judicial restraint. He's convinced that an expert in the courtroom, handpicked by himself, trumps common sense, other sources of information, and the rights of 7 million Californians. The shallowness of his arguments was matched only by the incredible applause showered on his head for making them."
People who are bystanders in this battle may not understand how personal this is for those of us who are fighting the good fight, for what we think is right for the our children and our country.
As I wrote in National Review Online this week, gay-marriage advocates are now asking federal courts to invalidate Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman. If they succeed, gay marriage will become law, not only in California but in every state in the United States. The case is indeed about a fundamental civil right--but not the one they are asserting. It is about the right to vote to protect marriage.
When I look at my own six children, I wonder what will happen to them, and to the values their mother and I teach, in a world where federal courts are asked to reject our views of marriage and where lawyers like Ted Olson insist that our beliefs are bigoted, hateful, irrational.
I am a native Californian, and my wife and I and our kids moved back to California in 2008 for a year to work to protect marriage. We understood that if the California state supreme court were allowed to overturn marriage, the whole country would be affected.
And so we fought, with decency and civility, in love, for the future of marriage in our country. We fought using the rights guaranteed to us under the California state constitution and the Constitution of the United States. Working with Protect Marriage and others, we organized, we advocated, we raised money, and together with 7 million Californians we voted to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Against all odds, we won.
Many, many Americans sacrificed to make this dream come true. People I know have had their homes, their livelihoods, and their businesses attacked because they fought for marriage. These are the people Ted Olson says don't count.
Having lost at the ballot box, gay-marriage advocates are now stepping forward and asking the courts to nullify our victory, to invalidate our sacrifice, and to take away our right to vote for marriage. They want to misuse the law to treat marriage supporters as second-class citizens, the equivalent of racists.
Ted Olson could not be any more clear about that, repeatedly comparing support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman to opposition to interracial marriage--at one point he even compared gay marriage to the issues raised by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"!
The amazing thing is how much the common sense of the American people, drawn from actual life experience, continues to trump the theoretical constructs of lawyers like Ted.
In the latest Rasmussen poll, 80% of Americans believe it's "Very Important" for children to grow up in a home with both their parents. Just four percent (4%) think it's "Not Very Important." And no one says having both parents in the home is "Not At All Important."
Some things are bigger than politics. We will make sure your voice and your values are heard!
Faithfully,
Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage
2029 K Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006
[email protected]
