By: Christine Nicco/TRT Reporter–
In a move that clearly depicts the division, hatred and vitriol towards marriage equality, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) left behind documents obtained by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that prove what its “leaders” and secret donors are really after, according to HRC officials. NOM’s campaign is aimed at defeating marriage equality, President Obama’s re-election, and creating a wall against racial and ethnic groups.
NOM Lies to Americans
The tactics that NOM has used to lie to millions of Americans seem to finally be out in the open and they show the definitive signs of an obscure group filled with hatred trying to desperately impose and spread a culture of fear, hatred and maliciousness against anything and anyone that does not fit the “NOM profile.”
BuffFeed (http://bit.ly/GTUSli) ran a story that reported that the documents are “marked ‘confidential’ and detail the internal strategy of the National Organization for Marriage.”
Divisive Tactics: The Black & Latino Link
According to the HRC, they received the “confidential strategy documents as part of a continuing investigation by the state of Maine. The court-ordered disclosure shows NOM fighting a losing battle with strategy and tactics that are racially and ethnically divisive, “filled with false political calculations, and out of touch with the majority of fair-minded Americans.”
The document words target the core of the Black and Latino base and aims to foster a negative relationship between these groups and the LGBT community. It also, according to Buzzfeed, targets President Obama’s re-election via utilizing the Latino “swing vote.”
MassEquality Statement
“It has been obvious for years that one of the key strategies employed by opponents of marriage equality is to weaken Americans’ collective fairness by pitting parents against children, neighbors against neighbors, and minority groups against minority groups,” said MassEquality Executive Director Kara Suffredini. “Nonetheless, such toxic cynicism never ceases to be shocking. The casual tone with which NOM outlines how it will turn fair-minded Americans against each other solely to hurt LGBT families speaks for itself. This is the ugliest example of a ‘solution’ in search of a problem.”
The HRC officials state that the “Maine Ethics Commission launched a formal investigation into NOM’s fundraising tactics in late 2009, based on an initial complaint filed by Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate.”
HRC Statement
Said HRC President Joe Solmonese: “With the veil lifted, Americans everywhere can now see the ugly politics that the National Organization for Marriage traffics in every day. While loving gay and lesbian couples seek to make lifelong commitments, NOM plays racial politics, tries to hide donors and makes up lies about people of faith. The contrast could not be any starker. The reason that Americans are steadily moving in the direction of marriage equality is because they identify with the loving and committed couples who want to enter into the institution, not NOM’s underhanded tactics of lies and manipulation.”
According to the HRC, the key themes that emerge from the documents are:
- Racial Politics
- NOM’s admitted key goal is to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks.”
- NOM aims to manipulate Hispanic communities by “making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity” and “to make opposition to gay marriage an identity marker, a badge of youth rebellion to conformist assimilation to the bad side of ‘Anglo’ culture.”
- Facing a Losing Battle
- They were 0 for 3 in their 2010 priority: “Roll back gay marriage in New Hampshire, Iowa, and D.C.” Marriage equality remains on the books in all three with the New Hampshire Republican legislature just last week rejecting a move to repeal their law.
- Huge Coffers Fund Phony “Research”
- NOM outlined a plan to spend $100,000 on a “study of what schools are teaching in gay marriage/civil union regimes.”
- $150,000 is earmarked for videotaping stories of those supposedly harmed by marriage equality called “The Face of the Victims” project.
- $60,000 in salary earmarked for an “outreach coordinator to identify children of gay parents willing to speak on camera.”
- $50,000 earmarked for “Expert Witness Project” that couldn’t cultivate a single credible witness to stand up in the Prop 8 trial for example.
- Painting Themselves as Victims
- NOM pushes the false notion that Americans are under attack: “Gay marriage is the tip of the spear, the weapon that will be and is being used to marginalize and repress Christianity and the Church.”
- Embracing marriage equality supposedly “affects economic performance, expands the regulatory and taxing powers of government, and threatens the family businesses that generate economic growth and prosperity.”
- Despite every court to hear the issue finding no evidence of any harassment or intimidation, NOM continues to claim “gay marriage advocates have focused relentlessly on harassing and intimidating local donors.”
- Ignoring Campaign Finance Rules
- NOM brags that “one key advantage we now have is the capacity to protect the identity of our donors.”
- Worried about disclosure laws, NOM encourages donors to give to a slush fund for use around the country saying, “It is critical that we have a reserve fund to give to these efforts to ensure victory and protect donor identity.”
- Small Movement with a Big Voice
- Recognizing that they are a fringe movement, they brag about having wide media exposure writing: “there is an opportunity for a small countercultural community to have a disproportionate cultural impact.”
- It’s Not Just About Marriage
- NOM can no longer claim that they’re only focused on marriage. Their “American Principles Project” seeks to “Expose Obama as a social radical” by “develop[ing] side issues” like “pornography” and veering off into issues around the Guantanamo Prison and opposing administration appointments.
- As part of their “cultural strategies” they suggest “raising the negatives on homosexuality.”
- Their state affiliate in Rhode Island “hopes to introduce divorce reform legislation in an effort to strengthen Rhode Island’s marriage and families.”
- Taking their Movement Internationally
- “The movement for gay marriage is global. The counterrevolution protecting marriage needs to have a similar international reach.”
Not all bad news
“The good news is, it’s not working,” said Suffredini. “Seven national polls show that a majority of Americans now support marriage equality. This includes strong growth in support among African-Americans (from 32% to 50%) and among Hispanic voters by nearly 2 to 1, two communities specifically targeted in NOM’s secret strategy memos.”
The original documents are available at: http://bit.ly/GSynlW. NOM’s internal report can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/GUGMhX.
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
MassEquality works to ensure that every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person in Massachusetts is protected from cradle to grave—with equal rights and opportunities in school, in marriage and family life, at work and in retirement.