The haters at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) are at it again. With mid-term elections less than a month away, the anti-gay marriage group is crisscrossing the country, throwing money behind candidates that oppose same-sex marriage and funding ads that attack equality supporters.
According to the Edge Boston, NOM has filed lawsuits in Florida, New York and Rhode Island to challenge campaign finance laws that limit what the organization can spend backing their favorite gay marriage opponents. Among other arguments, NOM claims that it should not have to report its expenditures or comply with spending caps, because the organization is not a political action committee (PAC) and because NOM believes that campaign finance restrictions violate the organization’s freedom of speech.
And while the organization has extremely deep pockets, their attorneys seem to lack the proper legal know-how. In dismissing the Rhode Island lawsuit on Friday, U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi called it “disorganized, vague and poorly constructed,” the Boston Globe reported. Judge Lisi has given NOM a deadline of October 6 to re-file a cleaned-up version of the lawsuit.
The Edge Boston also reports that, in New Hampshire, NOM has poured $625,000 since last spring into ads attacking Democratic Governor John Lynch, who is up for re-election, because he signed gay marriage into law in 2009.
In California, NOM, along with the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and the Susan B. Anthony List, launched another bus tour, this time targeting Latinos urging them to “vota tus valores” or “vote your values,” by supporting failed Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
Technically, the tour is an initiative of and funded by the American Principles Project (APP), but since NOM President Maggie Gallagher sits on APP’s board of directors, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where one discriminatory group ends and another begins.
On her blog, lesbian journalist Karen Ocamb reports that attendance at tour stops has been abysmal.
Even with limited turnout, gay marriage opponents along the tour found the time and muscle to assault Courage Campaign staff member Anthony Ash on Monday as he attempted to film a tour stop event.
As further evidence of how dysfunctional (yet frighteningly well-funded) NOM’s events are, yesterday, Kathleen Perrin reported that John Mellencamp’s publicist issued a cease and desist order to NOM, demanding that the organization stop playing his songs at their rallies. Mellencamp, who supports gay marriage, has never given NOM permission to use his music.
In an effort to shed light on NOM’s actions, the Human Rights Campaign and the Courage Campaign have launched NOMexposed.com, which details NOM’s religious ties, outlines NOM’s supporters and tracks NOM’s funding sources.
