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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
Under the guise of "the people have been denied the right to vote," the National Organization for Marriage is launching a campaign to yank marriage equality away from New York.
NOM President Brian Brown sent out this letter:
I've got really exciting news to announce to you this week: a new coalition, a new plan, a rebuilt PAC. And here's the most exciting news: a huge multi-city series of rallies and protest marches taking place across the state of New York to win a vote to protect marriage in New York's constitution!
Save the date: Sunday, July 24, 3 p.m. Go here to get the practical details. And here's the good news: You can show up to let Albany know you've had enough of the corruption, the backroom deals, the lying, the politics as usual. Let the people vote!
Don't forget to send this link to Let the People Vote to your five best friends, the folks you know who are mad enough not to take this from Republicans and other pols lying down!
We at NOM have promised to raise $2 million to help defeat the politicians who've betrayed marriage in 2012.
The good news is that in our first week alone, hundreds of you sent donations adding up to $40,000 to NOM's NY PAC.
Interesting thing about Brown's letter. While it was extremely sketchy on details of just what NOM's plan will be, he asked for donations at least five times. Talk about your hard sells.
It's always extremely fascinating to me how NOM throws around the hyperbole. In the same letter, Brown labels lone anti-gay marriage Democrat Ruben Diaz as virtuous and heroic in spite of the fact that Diaz acted like a damn fool before the final vote.
But this is what he says about the legislators who voted for marriage equality:
On Sunday July 24 evangelicals, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Jews will come together in love all across the state to take back marriage from the politicians who betrayed it.
NOM claims to speak for New Yorkers but the majority of them actually support marriage equality. One would have to ask just who is NOM speaking for. It would seem to me by passing the marriage equality bill, NY legislators did follow the will of the people.
Yet Brown makes them seem like the Hun army during a day of wanton pillaging.
Granted, Brown will say that "opinion polls don't matter," or "the only opinion poll is at the voting booth," or "31 states have voted against gay marriage."
Of course Brown and his fellow NOMbies will omit mentioning the mailers, the robocalls, and the commercials linking marriage equality to the "indoctrination of children" and the deep pockets NOM uses to filter this mess throughout whichever state they are working at time.
Proving yet again that you can scare people to vote anyway you want, provided you have the money.
However, I really question NOM's intelligence here. NY will start issuing licenses on July 24. And I am suspecting that a lot of people are going to be getting them.
I don't think that anything resembling an attempt at a referendum would be smart or politically advantageous to anyone pushing it.
Once people get a taste of ambrosia, they don't go back to scraps so easily.
And starting on July 24, there is going to be a lot of ambrosia eaters in NY.
Related post:
NOM's declaration against violence rings hollow
21 Comments
Fight backTo counter NOM’s action, why don’t we start a campaign to go after religious denominations supporting NOM’s position and calling for the removal of their tax-exempt status? Religious denominations aren’t supposed to be supporting threats and harassment of politicians or endorsing any opposed to marriage equality law.
Why NOM refuses to open its list of donorsNOM claims it is protecting the privacy and security of its donors and under section 501(c)4 of the IRS code, it isn’t required to publish its list of condors but, if it is receiving donations from corporations or unions, it is a violation of its non-profit status and subject to prosecution. I bet that is the underlying reason why it refuses to allow public access to its donor list.
Brown speaks of “a rebuilt PAC”That would be because the old political action committee was disbanded in a desperate effort to avoid complying with public disclosure laws.
New York does NOT have “Initiative” – thang goodness!. . . and if one just looks at California and Florida, two states with ballot initiative processes for both legislaive and constitutional public referenda, one can see the mess that is created by the process.
New York may have the reputation as the single most dysfunctional legislature in the country, but as a result of the ballot initiative process, California and FLorida have the most screwed-up laws – and are states in which the legislature has little control of most of the state budget because if initiative-driven mandates.
I remember my 8th grade civics textbook extolled the virtues of what were then seen as modern governmental directions – a package of “Initiative, Referendum, and Recall.”
The only kind of initiative I would support would be for voters to be able to create a bill, that would be filed with the legislature as a “People’s Bill” on the signing of sufficient petitions, but would otherwise go through the usual legislative scrutiny.
Of course, such a mechanism really isn’t necessary, since legislators are often open to suggestions (and even bill drafts!) from constituents. Good lobbyists pre-write bills for legislators to introduce, and ordinary citizens can actually do the same thing, at least if they know how.
Moving back to NOM’s pathetic movement to bring in ballot initiative, the answer is this:
A majority should not be allowed to vote on the civil rights of a minority.
Precisely Joann!That’s why NOM’s on the ropes — and whining to beat the band, as it asks for money.
This is the NOM money train’s last stop.
An exercise in futilityEven if New York were to have a constitutional convention to repeal the marriage equality law, it would have to pass both houses of the chamber. Not going to happen. It’s lengthy and costly. I’m surprised in this day and age of computer savvy people, nobody has been able to hack into NOM’s server to get the list of its donors.
That’s because if there is such a listit’s on the back of an old envelope in Maggie’s purse. I wouldn’t trust NOM to do any detailed record-keeping.
And as I understand it, even if NOM is successful in replacing pro-marriage legislators with anti-marriage legislators (and I suspect that in itself is a long shot), the earliest an amendment could pass both houses and be placed on the ballot would be 2014. Good luck with that.
Maybe some enterprising New Yorkers might consider filing a suit in federal court against NOM and any number of bishops for “conspiring to deny civil rights.” I seem to recall that it worked in the ’70s.
Excellent point.It hadn’t occurred to me before, but NOM’s reason for fighting the disclosure requirements may very well be that they simply haven’t kept the kind of records the law requires. It would certainly be typical of them. They’re only answerable to their tripartite man-god, at least in their own “minds.”
Bring on the “throngs”!I wonder if the “huge multi-city series of rallies and protest marches taking place across the state of New York” will draw as many supporters as their “Summer for Marriage Tour 2010″ bus tour last year.
At most stops, the peaceful protesters outnumbered the sheeple.
Bad record keeping or notEven if NOM keeps bad records, bank statements don’t lie. In fact, most banks print copies of deposited checks on a monthly basis. There’s no way that NOM could conceal who the donors are, especially if corporations are donating a minimum of $5000, the amount at which NOM would be subject to IRS scrutiny. It would be illegal for NOM to accept corporate donations of $5000 or more which would result in prosecution and/or forfeiture of its tax-exempt status.
We have a counter-protest already.hundreds of happy, joyful LGBT couples will be swarming the City Halls of New York that day. Every news camera in the state will be there to see what happy people committing to a lifetime of love looks like.
That is all the counter our community needs.
While we are celebrating love, the haters will be stamping their feet in their sour grapes.
The media will will report and the optics will not look good for them. (And FYI, the NYC media will not frame them kindly.)
This is a big misstep on their part, and I welcome them to come to NY and throw their hateful little tantrum.
Exactly. The turnout for their “protest” will be dwarfed by the turnout at City Halls.
Good luck to them, this is their “Summer of Marriage” tour FAIL all over again.
The middle will see where the energy and love lies.
Isn’t this a swindlewhen there si essentially no way to get a change in the NY State Constitution or a plebescite on marriage?
Exactly. The turnout for their “protest” will be dwarfed by the turnout at City Halls.
Good luck to them, this is their “Summer of Marriage” tour FAIL all over again.
The middle will see where the energy and love lies.
Ask Fox News to hack the cellphones of NOMNewsCorp has a lot of practice in this regard
Absolutely. The national grifters are swindling their own supporters with false hope.
Here is my take on NOM’s Scheme To Repeal NY’s Marriage Equality.
It’s a financial scam.
I didn’t post it here as it was redundant with Laurel’s take on it.
New Poster CampaignHas anyone the copyright of that ugly photo that heads this post? It just begs to be used as a placard or poster with the header:
The Ugly Face of Homophobia.
Since Brian Brown speaks on no other ‘pro-tradional marriage’ topic than marriage equality for the gay community (never divorce/heterosexual infidelity etc), it cannot be claimed that those twisted features were in the middle of spouting some goddamn ugly lies…
When do the people get to voteto revoke NOM’s tax exempt status and require them to disclose ALL their financial donors?
My takeEach day, I would have virtually every TLBG and ally where NOM refuses to release their donor records sue the group individually and demand serious damages for refusal to release said records.
They need to be buried so fast and so deep in suits they can’t take the time, effort or money to spread their perverted messages, but spend those funds on nice expensive lawyers to drain their coffers and the coffers of their perverted backers.
Two thirds majority neededEven if there were a constitutional convention to repeal marriage equality in our state, it would require a two thirds majority to pass it in the chamber. NOT going to happen. NOM can do whatever it wants, but at its own peril. It’s a losing proposition.
It is a very winning proposition… to extract a lot of money from the angry bigots seeing their narrow worldview being broadened against their will.