Gay Rights

The Battle Over Gay Marriage Set To Go Nationwide

Jillian Rayfield | January 5, 2012, 5:51AM

Washington is the latest state to start up a battle for marriage equality, in a year that was already going to be full of major fights for gay rights.

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National Organization for Marriage

Anti-Gay Groups Struggle, Make Year-End Pleas For Financial Help

Jillian Rayfield | December 30, 2011, 5:00AM

This holiday season, give the gift of support to your favorite struggling anti-gay group.

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Gay Marriage

Anti-Gay Marriage Groups Lose Another Battle To Keep Supporters Secret

Jillian Rayfield | November 29, 2011, 5:08AM

Gay marriage opponents are fighting (and, for the most part, losing) the battle to keep their supporters and donors secret from the "homosexual lobby" that they claim is seeking to intimidate them.

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National Organization for Marriage

Anti-Gay Marriage Group Pretends Obama Rally Is Anti-Gay Marriage Protest

Jillian Rayfield | October 25, 2011, 2:01PM

The anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage was caught trying to pass off a picture of a rally for President Obama as that of an anti-gay marriage rally.

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Minnesota

NOM Loses Bid To Keep Anti-Gay Marriage MN Donors Concealed Out Of 'Harassment' Fears

Jillian Rayfield | July 6, 2011, 6:00AM

Anti-gay marriage protesters

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board rejected the National Organization for Marriage's bid to keep corporate donors anonymous in the state's gay marriage fight, which it argued was to protect the donors from "harassment, property damage, a chilling effect."

And regardless of that decision, lobbying records examined by the Minnesota Independent show some of the biggest individual donors behind the effort for a ballot initiative that would ban gay marriage. Among them, the owner of a DVD company who is a big contributor to Republicans, the meat mogul Rodney Huisken, and staffers for the Minnesota Family Council.

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National Organization for Marriage

New York Gay Marriage Decision Another Blow To NOM

Ryan J. Reilly | June 28, 2011, 5:45AM

NYS Senator the Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., left, marches with Brian Brown, right, of the National Organization for Marriage

The National Organization for Marriage has a flair for the dramatic. Their much-mocked advertisement against gay marriage featured literal clouds forming over the heads of actors portraying regular American citizens whimpering at the thought of an impending gay marriage-acalypse.

If they'd chosen a cinematic interpretation of the "D-Day" metaphor they used in emails to anti-gay marriage supporters before their big loss last week, it might feature flamboyant soldiers invading the shores of the Hamptons.

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National Organization for Marriage

NOM Launches 'Investigation' Of Law Firm's Decision To Drop DOMA Case

Ryan J. Reilly | April 25, 2011, 5:35PM

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a conservative organization fighting against the legalization of same-sex marriage, said Monday it would launch an "investigation" into the decision of the law firm King & Spalding to drop its defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

"We will convene a panel of legal experts and ethicists to determine if any rules of professional conduct have been violated, or if the firm has acted illegally in reaching their decision," NOM President Brian Brown said in a statement posted on their website. "We already know they have violated the moral imperative of acting in good faith and fair dealing. If our review concludes that the firm has violated any statutes or rules of professional conduct, we will initiate the appropriate disciplinary complaints."

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National Organization for Marriage

Anti-Gay Marriage Group NOM Threatens To Sue Defector

Ryan J. Reilly | April 19, 2011, 8:50AM

Publicly, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has said they're not worried about Louis Marinelli -- the former employee who defected from the group and changed his viewpoint on same-sex marriage -- even writing that they "wish him well" with his "different focus." But behind the scenes, the president of NOM is threatening legal action against Marinelli and demanding he take down blog posts about NOM on his website.

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DOMA

Lamar Smith Says Founding Fathers Didn't Want Gay Marriage

Ryan J. Reilly | April 18, 2011, 10:13AM

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)

In yet another instance of House Republicans focusing on social rather than fiscal issues, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday held a hearing examining the Obama administration's decision not the defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court because they found a provision of the law unconstitutional.

Several Republicans including Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, bashed the Justice Department's decision not to defend the law. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said last month that Congress would hire counsel to defend DOMA itself following a party line vote of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Council.

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Louis Marinelli

Conservative Defects From Anti-Gay Group, Now Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Ryan J. Reilly | April 13, 2011, 8:45AM

Less than a year ago Louis Marinelli was touring the country on a bus fighting against same-sex marriage, working for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), one of the largest anti-gay marriage groups in the country. Now Marinelli has defected from NOM and is advocating for marriage equality alongside the very same people he'd sparred with for years.

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Sarah Palin

Palin Tells Anti-Gay Group Obama 'Flip-Flopped' On DOMA

Ryan J. Reilly | March 1, 2011, 5:00PM

A week after the Obama administration announced it believed part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional and said it would no longer defend the law in court, former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin is out with a statement that slams (surprise!) President Barack Obama for the decision.

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National Organization for Marriage

Anti-Gay Activist: Gay Rights Groups Stole The Rainbow From Us!

Jillian Rayfield | December 16, 2010, 8:42AM

An activist for a sub-group of the anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage is speaking out against the use of the rainbow as a symbol for gay rights. "We are the real rainbow coalition. The gay lobby does not own the rainbow," she said.

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Same sex marriage

Anti-Gay Groups Defeat Iowa Supreme Court Justices

Rachel Slajda | November 3, 2010, 10:39AM

The "Judge Bus"

Three of Iowa's Supreme Court justices were voted out of office last night, chalking up a victory for the national anti-gay groups that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race.

With nearly all precincts reporting, the three justices -- David Baker, Michael Streit and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus -- were voted out by an average margin of 55% to 45%.

It's the first time an Iowa Supreme Court justice has been ousted since Iowa instituted its system of appointment and retention in 1962.

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Same sex marriage

The Campaign You're Not Watching -- But Anti-Gay Groups Are

Rachel Slajda | October 26, 2010, 10:19AM

The "Judge Bus"

Last year, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously to allow same sex marriage in Iowa. This year, Iowans will vote on whether to keep or boot three of the seven justices who decided that case -- and the campaign has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars from national anti-gay groups.

In Iowa, judges are appointed, not elected. But at the end of every judge's term, he or she goes up for "retention," meaning the populace votes whether to keep them around or throw them out.

The National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and the Family Research Council have seized on the chance to "fire" three of the justices, including Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, and are spending money -- more than $700,000 so far -- asking people to vote against retention. The campaign has also drawn cash from those who support gay marriage, and the justices themselves; the overwhelming majority of independent expenditures in the state, in fact, have been directed at the judicial retention race.

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