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NOM Marriage News: January 22, 2010

 

NOM Marriage News.

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Dear Friends of Marriage,

Senator Scott Brown!

Any time you wonder whether miracles can happen, just mutter that phrase under your breath: Senator Scott Brown!

A political earthquake just happened in Massachusetts. Yes, it's about the economy. Yes, it's about voter dissatisfaction with the current health-care bill. And yes, it's a victory for marriage, electing a senator who voted for a state marriage amendment and who pledged to uphold DOMA over a candidate who has led the charge to get the Supreme Court to gut DOMA--the one federal law that protects marriage as the union of husband and wife. (You can see from the articles in "NOM in the News" that our efforts to get marriage voters to the polls in Massachusetts did not go unnoticed!) Pres. Obama is also going to have a much harder time delivering on his promise to overturn DOMA after this 41st vote!

But it goes even deeper than that. Scott Brown's victory is a massive repudiation by voters of politicians who ignore their voices and their values--and let me tell you it bodes well for our job here at NOM in the 2010 elections in New Hampshire, Iowa and elsewhere. We have a great opportunity to fire incumbents who refuse to trust the people to vote on marriage, and replace them with elected representatives who represent our interests and values.

I am very optimistic about what this mean for marriage in the very near future--and so should you be!

And remember this is your victory! By helping NOM with your prayers, your sacrifices, your emails, your phone calls and yes, your time and treasure, you helped make this happen! 

One of the things we want to do at NOM is remain lean, flexible and smart--with the capacity to act fast to make a difference when opportunities arrive. Sen. Scott Brown is, we hope, merely the first of many examples of where you can make a difference. Thank you. I never forget that you are what make our work possible.

The big Prop 8 trial continues to unfold. Maggie Gallagher is commenting about it daily at the NOM blog, and you can sign up for our Twitter feed if you want to keep up.

But here's the bottom line: So far, it's not going that well for gay-marriage advocates. Legal scholars who favor gay marriage are expressing increasing concern. After the Supreme Court intervened to block the shenanigans aimed at televising the trial, Prof. Dale Carpenter called it "a potentially ominous development for the pro-[same-sex marriage] litigants." After all, "As an advocate you'd rather not have the ultimate reviewing court call into question your judge's objectivity on the third day of trial. The Court also takes seriously the claims of irreparable harm to anti-SSM witnesses. ..." "As an advocate," he points out, "you'd rather not have the ultimate reviewing court see the opposition as David needing protection from your Goliath."

All in all, he concludes, "it's a bad start for the judicial challenge to Prop 8."

Ted Olson's and David Boies's basic legal strategy is to put Christianity on trial. Southern Baptist and Catholic statements about sex and marriage are being read into the record as evidence of animus and bigotry and fancy professors are testifying that "religion is the chief obstacle for gays' and lesbians' political progress."

As Maggie writes, "Ted and David want the Supreme Court to rule that Catholicism and Southern Baptism and related Christian denominations are bigotry."

You and I know better. You and I know that millions of decent, loving, law-abiding Americans are being characterized as bigots and haters because we know that marriage is the union of husband and wife.

One example: Cindy McCain.

You may have seen the news stories that Sen. McCain's wife announced her support of gay marriage. That's no big deal. It's a free country and everyone should be able to speak their minds, even when we disagree. But Mrs. McCain chose to express her mind by appearing in an ad campaign whose slogan is "NOH8." Get it? No to Prop 8, No Hate. 

That's a slogan that collapses the distinction between hatred and disagreement, which insults and stereotypes 7 million Californians who voted for Prop 8--not to mention Mrs. McCain's husband, who campaigned for Arizona's marriage amendment.

I have a message for Ted and David: It's not going to work. It's not true, it's not civil or decent, and it's not going to work!

Pray for our opponents. We need grace, and courage, and kindness of heart to stand up to the onslaught unfolding before our eyes. 

And we need, above all, to stand together for the truth about marriage.

With God's grace, truth will prevail.

God bless you!

Brian BrownFaithfully,
Brian S. Brown
Executive Director
National Organization for Marriage
20 Nassau Street, Suite 242
Princeton, NJ 08542
[email protected]

P.S. We called 800,000 households in Massachusetts to find marriage voters to turn out for Scott Brown. Our coffers are bare. We need your help to replenish them so we can strike quickly when opportunities arise elsewhere.  Can you reach down and help us make more victories happen? $10 for marriage this week can make a huge difference. If you're blessed with more and want to make more happen, consider a larger gift, $100 or even $1000 for marriage (we can dream big, can't we?). But above all keep praying and keep acting! It's morning in America for marriage! We're on the cusp of something really big.

NOM Featured Article
"Marriage Group Poll: Brown Up 5"
Ben Smith
Politico.com
January 18, 2010
Another data point for the junkies: The National Organization for Marriage says a smallish poll conducted for it by QEV Analytics has Brown up 5 (which is well within the margin for error of the 304-person sample).

NOM in the News
"Massachusetts Senate Candidates Push to the Finish Line"
New York Times
January 18, 2010
The National Rifle Association and the National Organization for Marriage - which opposes same-sex marriage - have also run small campaigns intended to get Mr. Brown's supporters to the polls on Tuesday, federal election records show.

"Brown Win a Setback for Gay Activists, Liberal Causes"
Baptist Press
January 20, 2010
The National Organization for Marriage -- a leading opponent of "gay marriage" -- spent $50,000 in the final days in automated phone calls to 800,000 households to elect Brown.

"Massachusetts Robocalls"
Metro Weekly
January 16, 2010
The National Organization for Marriage appears to be making automated telephone calls today in support of U.S. Senate candidate and Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (R) and attacking his opponent, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D), for her strong pro-marriage equality position. Coakley is running an unexpectedly close race for the seat held by the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D), the election for which will be held Tuesday.

"Scott Brown Benefits from Late National Republican Money"
Robert Schlesinger
USNews.com blog
January 17, 2010
The National Republican Trust, an influential and well-financed conservative PAC, has spent a bit under $100,000 on media and emails. The National Organization for Marriage ($50,000) and something called the Cooperative of American Physicians ($35,000) have each sunk money into phone banking on behalf of Brown.

"Judge Says Public Vote on D.C. Gay 'Marriage' Law Would Violate Human Rights Act"
LifeSite News
January 15, 2010
"Had gay-marriage opponents been able to hold a Prop. 8-style referendum (the successful California vote against same-sex 'marriage') in D.C., Washington would likely have followed the national trend and banned same-sex marriage," said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage.

"Must-See TV"
Dahlia Lithwick
Newsweek
January 15, 2010
Yet when Judge Walker announced that he'd allow portions of Perry v. Schwarzenegger to be shown on YouTube, the fear of the marauding villagers was almost palpable. In opposing the move, for instance, Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, argued that the decision to put cameras in the courtrooms was intended for "low profile" cases only. Can it possibly be true that the American citizenry is fit to watch only boring cases, not the big ones?

"Nun Need Apply"
Kathryn Jean Lopez
National Review Online
January 16, 2010
Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, who has been a close observer of and active participant in the religious-freedom fight across the country, including in Massachusetts, says: "The genteel liberal consensus around abortion -- as long as women can get them, let's not torture religious people or institutions that disagree -- is clearly breaking down. Part of the reason is that as religious people filter increasingly into the one party that protects their values, the other party is becoming increasingly open to using the law to stick it to such folks if possible."

"An Unlikely Warrior Against Prop 8"
Long Beach Press-Telegram
January 18, 2010
Karger stepped into the fight and did what he knows best. He created an organization, Californians Against Hate. The name belies its size. It was Karger and a few friends. Using the Internet and his knowledge of media and his organizing ability, Karger fanned boycotts of the six- and seven-figure donors to Yes-on-8, including a San Diego convention hotel and a Central Valley health food producer.

"Cindy McCain Defends Gay Marriage and Joins the NOH8 Campaign"
Associated Content
January 20, 2010
Proposition 8 may not have passed if it were not for the aggressive work of the National Organization of Marriage, a nonprofit organization that wants to "protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it." The organization backs a number of conservative Republicans who believe that marriage should only happen between a man and a woman. With high profile Republicans, like the conservative Sarah Palin, it can be easy to forget that Republicans are not all the same.

"University of Colorado Catholics to Host Debate on Same-Sex 'Marriage'"
Catholic News Agency
January 21, 2010
The Catholic campus ministry at the University of Colorado at Boulder will host a debate next Monday on whether the government should recognize same-sex "marriage." The speakers will be Maggie Gallagher and Jonathan Rauch.

©2010 National Organization for Marriage.

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