Meanwhile, Vote for Marriage NC, follows the NOM template and is watching their conservative friends jump ship on Amendment One.

NOM is getting beaten up badly in national and local media after HRC published internal strategy papers unsealed by a federal judge pitting the black and gay communities in his hate campaign to “protect marriage.” While NOM has enjoyed flying under the mainstream media for most of its history,  the NYT and the San Francisco Chronicle hopped on this development.

BTW, Maggie Gallagher continues fomenting the myth that the LGBT community is all-white (and apparently all liberal – has she not heard of GOProud or the Log Cabin Republicans?).

But aside from that — the meme that the black community is solidly anti-gay (1. it’s not a monolith, and 2. it’s not all churched or conservatively so) needs to be destroyed. I think it’s instructive to see this statement from the African American Ministers Leadership Council.

Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, Director of People For the American Way Foundation’s African American Ministers Leadership Council issued the following statement on behalf of the Council’s Equal Justice Task Force:

“If the success of the National Organization of Marriage’s movement depends on stirring up resentment between communities, it might want to rethink its strategies.

“African American men and women of faith are not a political football to be tossed around in a cynical game of resentment and division. We, like all Americans, struggle thoughtfully with issues of faith, family and politics. Anti-equality activists such as NOM consistently attempt to use a deeply cynical ‘wedge’ strategy to divide African Americans and the gay community, playing up what are now old and tired cliches. In the long run, this strategy will falter as African American and LGBT communities continue to work together for equal justice.

“I celebrate as more and more African American clergy engage in AAMLC’s Healing Grace dialogues and work to confront and overcome stigma, prejudice and homophobia in the Black Church. We continually seek to help and not harm, love and not hate, reconcile and not separate, unite and not divide — and it’s working.

“NOM’s explicit attempt to drive a wedge between the LGBT community and African Americans is deeply offensive, and it exposes the depravity of their politics.”

UPDATE: And look at this comment by civil rights legend Julian Bond:

“It confirmed a suspicion that some evil hand was behind this,” former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond told The Hill.

The civil rights leader said the strategy appeared to have been implemented already, pointing to a gay-marriage push in Maryland that failed in 2011, which he said was largely due to opposition from black politicians. (Gay marriage was reintroduced in 2012 in Maryland and passed, although opponents are trying to reverse it through a referendum).

“I would not be surprised to find this group and its filthy hand in crafting this situation,” Bond said.

And as I blogged earlier, the conservative coalition supporting Vote for Marriage NC is crumbling under the weight of its heavy-handed, fact-free, religion-based, color-aroused NOM strategy template that it’s using. Here’s Speaker of the NC House, Thom Tillis, who engineered the passage of the legislation that put A1 on the ballot, is on video predicting its repeal if it does in fact pass, saying “It’s a generational issue. The data shows right now that you are a generation away from that issue.” Laura Leslie reports:

“If you take a look at the demographic trends … I would expect that you would see pressure going in the opposite direction,” Tillis said. Given that he thought it might be repealed, I asked Tillis whether it was wise to put the amendment in the constitution in the first place.

Tillis also talks about his philosophical hesitation about the amendment. The Republican Party, he said, is supposed to be about limiting the control government has over people’s lives.

Of course his craven maneuver was “strictly politics” for him; he knows gay people, he just wants to score points with the base; he found out quickly that the business-class Republicans have beaten him up continuously since he foisted this onto voters, and he’s trying desperately to not look like a bigot. TOO LATE. That hardly sounds like a man who believes in “protecting marriage” forever. It’s slipping away, Tami Fitzgerald.

Jeremy Kennedy, campaign manager, Protect All NC Families had this to say about the Speaker:

“Thom Tillis’ statement reveals not only the growing opposition to Amendment One, but also that even its primary proponent is now having second thoughts about the necessity and longevity of this constitutional rewrite. Our question is then, ‘why would you strip kids of their health care, threaten domestic violence protections, and muddy parental rights to their children–all in a last ditch effort to codify a poorly-written measure that future generations will be forced clean up?’ Tillis’ statement, along with the revelation that the sole strategy behind this amendment is to divide our state’s communities, shows this isn’t really about marriage at all, but rather a political ploy to disenfranchise our state’s most vulnerable citizens. And that’s not right.” – Jeremy Kennedy, campaign manager, Protect All NC Families.

I also want to remind readers that Tillis presides over a House that held an un-believable press conference that was cut right from the NOM template. The speaker allowed Rep. Dale Folwell, the number three pol in the body, to play host to black pastors whose homophobia he had to later disavow support of. Tillis let THIS go on (NC Policy Watch):

According to at least one of the speakers called to the podium by Folwell, an anti-LGBT marriage amendment is necessary in North Carolina because homosexual acts violate biological rules. According to a Rev. Johnny Hunter, sexual acts between two people of the same gender are “immoral and unnatural.” Hunter explained that only heterosexual acts allow a marriage to be properly “consummated.” At one point, Hunter held up two locks (apparently as a symbol for two women) and banged them together to show that they were not designed for each other. He said the same would be the case for two keys – apparently in reference to two men.

Got that? According to a speaker promoted by one of the top officers in the North Carolina House of Representatives, marriage isn’t marriage unless it can be consummated through heterosexual intercourse.

Related:

* New e-blast sent by Vote for Marriage NC as it watches its conservative coalition crumble
* Day 2 of NC Money Bomb Blogswarm: NOM’s race strategy and last night’s debate at Meredith College
* Blog call update: Where we stand on Day 1 of the blogswarm money bomb
* The Blogswarm Money Bomb is off to a great start – thanks to you! Plus the chat transcript
* Game on! We’re all-in against Amendment One during this week’s Money bomb Blogswarm

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