Brian Brown, president of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, last night claimed that “Gay and lesbian people already enjoy full equal rights under the law,” a clear lie. Same-sex couples are legally prohibited frBrown, who issued the claim in response to President Obama’s historic call for full LGBT equality in his inauguration speech, also “criticized President Obama’s decision to use his Inauguration Day address to further divide the nation on the question of what is marriage,” in a press release posted to the NOM blog:
“They have the same civil rights as anyone else; they have the right to live as they wish and love whom they choose. What they don’t have is the right to redefine marriage for all of society. In fact, six federal courts have rejected the idea that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in a summary decision in 1972. Furthermore, the vast majority of states have codified the commonsense view held for thousands of years that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. The President is profoundly wrong to imply that those who have acted to protect marriage have denied anyone’s rights by doing so.”
Curiously, Brown was forced to go back in history four decades, to 1972, to support his claims. Meanwhile, in the 21st century — an era which Brown conveniently forgot to mention — dozens of federal judges have declared DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 that bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, unconstitutional, and branded his special brand of anti-gay animus as reason to toss California’s Prop 8 out the window.
Also, Brown’s ludicrous lie of “the commonsense view held for thousands of years that marriage is the union of a man and a woman,” flies in the face of same-sex unions blessed by Christian Churches centuries ago, and the fact that the Bible itself supported men marrying as many women as they could afford. It wasn’t long ago that Mormonism supported polygamy, as other religions do to this day.
“A presidential inauguration should be a time for the nation to come together; instead President Obama chose to voice his support for a radical agenda advanced by some of his biggest campaign contributors to redefine marriage for everyone,” Brown claimed, which, again, is false.
When women were given the vote, was it redefined? Did we call “voting” something else when only male landowners were allowed to vote? Was marriage called something else before Blacks and whites were allowed to marry each other in this country?
“Marriage brings our nation together. The concept of gay ‘marriage’ would have been totally alien to our founding fathers, and the protection and advancement of marriage between one man and one woman will immeasurably serve the common good of this country and further strengthen our Union. Today the President should have thrown his support behind this beautiful vision of men and women coming together in love to raise the next generation. Nonetheless, we pro-marriage Americans pledge to defend the institution which the President has chosen to undermine once again.”
The National Organization For Marriage is facing a devastating reality that its anti-gay hatred, its corporate policy of promoting racial division, and its anti-equality raison d’être, is a losing battle, as the majority of Americans for several years, in poll after poll, and now in elections across the nation, from Washington state to Washington D.C., from Maryland to Maine, have voted to extend the institution of marriage to same-sex couples.
Clearly, we can continue to expect heightened rhetoric from Brian Brown and his National Organization For Marriage, as they continue to lose their fight.
Related:
NOM’s Marriage Anti-Defamation Spokesperson: Obama Is A Terrorist
NOM: ‘Americans remain strongly in favor of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.’
NOM: In 2009 We Spent $8 Million Fighting Same-Sex Marriage
New NOM Poll: ‘Should Obama Force Homosexual Marriage On Everyone?’
NOM’s New Anti-Gay Ad Suggests Gay Parents More Likely To Abuse Kids
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NOM is now the 21st Century KKK and they are livid that the public now knows it.
I have to respectfully disagree with you Mykelbarber. The don't care so long as the Catholic Church keeps the money coming in. Brian is leading a comfortable life traveling the world on the Catholic dime (since they apparently no longer time to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and all that other silly meaningless stuff).
I think what probably has them livid is that their campaign of "it's only about the children" didn't work, and then the one based on just out-right gay bashing failed, so now he's trying out new talking points…gays already have equal rights…I got this from a guy at Focus on The Family just today. I have the same rights he does because I can marry a woman just like he can. That's the logic they're going for, and hoping this one sticks. I'm sure their usually knuckle-dragging followers buy, but they buy whatever NOM throws out. I'm think too highly of today's younger generations to believe they'll buy into this message, just like they couldn't be sold the other hog-wash NOM put out there.
Actually that's an old talking point of the racists. You have the same rights I have, you just have to drink out of a different water fountain and go to a different school. They are both the same kind of water fountain and same kind of school, so you should have no complaints.
Legal marriage for same-sex couples does not "redefine marriage for everyone." Redefining marriage for everyone would mean making same-sex marriage the ONLY acceptable form. That isn't what the BGLT community is pushing for, No one is trying to eradicate heterosexual marriage.
I know, I'm preaching ti the choir.
Baker v Nelson was a one-sentence dismissal, not a decision. They simply refused to hear the case. It's only binding precedent because of a procedural technicality that doesn't exist anymore. Back then the court had mandatory appellate jurisdiction over decisions that found federal laws unconstitutional, so they had to say something. That was abolished in 1988.
Not to mention that the binding precedent of Baker v. Nelson, such as it is, has been rendered moot due the the doctrinal changes in the law since 1972, notably Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas. The NOM knows this. They know Baker is a losing argument. For Brian Brown to rely upon the Baker case does nothing more than reveal how desperate he is to grasp for any gossamer hope possible that might support his dying ideology.
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