NOM’s bizarre “San Francisco Values” ad deconstucted: A point-by-point video takedown

(Matt Baume, who blogs at Stop8.org produced a video response to NOM’s radio ad released a few days ago, inspired partially by the work of Prop 8 Trial Tracker contibutor Rob Tisinai. We liked it so much, we asked him to write this guest post for the Prop 8 Trial Tracker community. — Eden James)

By Matt Baume

As a journalist, it drives me nuts when someone tries to manipulate the truth. When I catch someone telling a lie, I can’t resist unraveling it. And I’m really glad to be able to unravel lies as big as the National Organization for Marriage’s, and to share that unravelling with the Prop 8 Trial Tracker community.

From the moment I heard it, NOM’s new radio ad drove me so crazy: it wasn’t just misleading, it was simply untrue. I mean, just look at what they’re claiming: Judge Walker ruled that heterosexual marriage is unconstitutional? No, of course he didn’t! That would be ridiculous. I mean, come on.

As soon as I saw it their ad, I became obsessed with picking it apart in my head. I’d think about one of NOM’s claims, and imagine myself pointing out why it was completely untrue. After a while, I thought, “why just keep this to myself?” I was really inspired by the work of Rob Tisiani, whose videos do such a great job of logically and intelligently unraveling anti-gay untruths.

So with some input from family and friends, I wrote down a few points, set up a camera, and after a little editing and uploading I had a video to share.

I know videos like these won’t change nearly as many minds as one-on-one conversations will. When I attended Camp Courage in Oakland last year, we learned all about the value of personally sharing our stories. But my hope is that videos like these can help folks keep our focus on the facts about marriage equality, rather than getting pulled into NOM’s bizarre distorted universe.

Like a lot of folks, I didn’t start really paying attention to marriage until 2008. Back then, all of San Francisco was jubilant over the California Supreme Court finally allowing gay couples to get married. But I saw Proposition 8 steamrollering through the celebration, and a sputtering campaign that just wasn’t up to the task of pushing back.

At the time, everyone wanted to contribute as best they could, and for me, that meant picking up a camera. I’ve been making short films and videos for years, and I knew I could help get the word out about why marriage equality matters.

I started by interviewing couples affected by marriage equality. I met Michael and Tom, who wanted be married for the sake of their child. Leah and Barb fondly recalled the happiest day of their lives. And Cynthia and Eva weren’t married yet, but were hopeful that they’d be allowed to when the time came. I set up Stop8.org to tell stories like theirs.

After Prop 8 passed, Stop8.org became something new: a clearinghouse for news about the ban, and the fight to overturn it. Over the last two years, I’ve watched the news every single day, and compiled weekly reports about how peoples’ lives have changed since Prop 8’s passage.

In the aftermath, I saw a surge in grassroots power, bitter fighting over which year to return to the ballot, and a resolve to continue pushing forward. Especially in the last few months, that resolve has been buoyed by court victories and a rapidly turning tide of public opinion.

I’ll keep reporting the facts about marriage equality, whether it’s through news reports or in videos. And I could always use a hand — if you’d like to help me to produce more videos like this, or just to help spread the word, drop me a line at contact@stop8.org.

And you can always just go ahead and make your own. It’s easy. After all, I’m just one guy with a camera, an iMac, a few hours to spare, and a husband to lend his support.

Next time NOM or their allies release factually incorrect information — and they’re pretty much guaranteed to do so — let’s all be ready to fight back with the truth.

NOM staggers toward the fringe

By Rob Tisinai

It’s clear that ever since Brian Brown stepped in for Magger Gallagher at the National Organization for Marriage, the group is becoming more and more of a fringe organization. Even so, they surprised me today with an entry on their blog. You know what they did?

They referenced World Net Daily.

NOMblog has an entire entry quoting 9 paragraphs of a WND editorial. That’s astounding. If you’ve never heard of WND, that’s because they’re waaaay on the extreme edge of America’s political conversation. Take a moment and scroll down their homepage to see what I mean. Not only did they publish a forged “Kenyan” birth certificate for Obama, not only did they break a “story” about secret emails between Obama and the Kenyan government, not only do they search for reasons to call Obama a Muslim, but they still haven’t given up on birtherism.

Birtherism.

And, of course, as you might expect, they hate teh gays. They long for the good ol’ days when homosexuality was illegal, and they present video commentary saying Uganda is right in its attempt to execute gays.

Oh, and they worry Obama wants to create Nazi-style concentration camps for political opponents in the US.

As far as I know, NOM has never linked to WND before. This is a huge change in tone for them. Frankly, from a strategic point of view, it doesn’t even matter what the article said. Merely citing WND is enough to call your credibility into question, even in some quarters of the Right.

Under Maggie Gallagher’s leadership NOM labored mightily to be seen as a serious organization, the kind CNN might call on for a debate about marriage equality. Now that Brian’s in charge they seem increasingly politically tone-deaf, like a drowning organization flailing in every direction for something to grab on to.

What on earth could make them so desperate?

(Cross-posted at Waking Up Now.)

NOM on “ex-gay” group: Merely “helping gay people lead Christian lives”

(Cross-posted at Good As You)

By Jeremy Hooper

On second thought, maybe the National Organization For Marriage and its officials no longer care about hiding their “ex-gay” support. Check out this little blip that was just posted to NOM’s blog:

An earthquake is beginning: If “gay is like black,” then “Christian is like racist.” The early warning signs are now taking place all over the globe. In New Zealand, Exodus Ministries was just stripped of its tax-exempt status, on the grounds that helping gay people lead Christian lives is not a charity

Exodus Ministries stripped of tax-exempt status in New Zealand. [NOM]

As most of you likely know: This New Zealand Exodus program is part of the American-based Exodus International/Exodus Global Alliance, a coalition where the sole focus — THE SOLE FOCUS! — is on changing gays into that scientifically-discredited state known as “ex-gay.” Which is exactly why in New Zealand, the Charities Commission denied charitable status to this group: Because of the staunch rejection that groups like the American Psychological Association have rightly shown towards these unbacked, potentially dangerous programs. Groups don’t get to be recognized as charitable, simply because they say it’s so. And LGBT-themed groups don’t get to say something is factual simply because it fits their “love the sinner, hate the sin” narrative!

Yet here we have NOM spinning this into an attack on Christianity? Standing up for “ex-gayness,” a notion that even a large percentage of marriage equality opponents proudly reject? Risking their reputation and capital (and reliable natural disaster allusions) on advocacy for “pray away the gay” programs?

Wow, you’re really getting sloppy, Maggie!

Blast from the past: NOM’s Brian Brown used to “pray away the gay”

(Cross-posted at Good As You)

By Jeremy Hooper

Nowadays, National Organization For Marriage president Brian Brown is way too politically savvy to encourage gays into scientifically discredited “ex-gay” change.

But that wasn’t always the case. Back when Brian was heading up the Family Institute of Connecticut and the national interest was much more lacking, a less public version of Brian was all about helping parents “prevent your child from embracing this destructive way of life”:

9/1/2005

(click the image to enlarge)



Family Institute of CT (archive)

What do we hear from NOM all the time? False victimization. Charges that Brian and crew will be unfairly labeled “bigots.” An attempt to flip the script to make the anti-LGBT crowd seem like the sympathetic figures.

But here we have it, almost five years ago to the date: Brian ignoring a preponderance of credible science to say that gays can and should pray away the gay. When it comes to Brian’s career in LGBT politics, somehow we’re having a hard time feeling sorry for whatever historical meme might take hold.

Will you thank Peter, Paul & Mary for telling NOM to stop using “This Land Is Your Land”?

by Andy Kelley
New Media Organizer, Courage Campaign Institute

If you hear a song being played at an event, it’s understandable to assume that the artist being featured supports the cause. After all, endorsements of musicians are common place within advocacy organizations, and a familiar voice helps lend legitimacy to a cause. To do so without permission would be to co-opt the groups name and to imply their endorsement of the event.

That’s why it was so shocking to Kathleen Perrin and many other participants in the Prop 8 Trial Tracker community when we first heard a Peter, Paul & Mary recording of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” in a video posted to the NOM Tour Tracker from NOM’s rally in Albany, NY. As Kathleen recounted on Friday in her front-page post (which includes video of the song being played at a NOM rally):

When I first heard this recording played in Albany, NY, I was stunned and deeply offended. Woody Guthrie and Peter, Paul & Mary are artists who have always unequivocally supported justice and equality for all.

I felt certain the surviving members of Peter, Paul & Mary would want to know of this grievous misuse of their recording, so I wrote to Peter Yarrow. In my correspondence, I provided a link to a video of the Albany rally and explained that their recording had been used at high volume to drown out the chants of “Equality” from the counter-demonstrators.

Mr. Yarrow responded, saying use of the song by NOM was “heartbreaking” and indicated he would be contacting NOM.

And Peter Yarrow did just that, sending a cease-and-desist letter to NOM. But Peter didn’t stop there, his letter went on to state “We strongly support the rights of all gays and lesbians to enjoy the rights and rituals of marriage that are enjoyed by their straight counterparts, and consider the abridgement of this right contrary to the sense of equal protection and fairness…” He went on to make an impassioned defense of equality for the gay and lesbian community.

His words are truly moving, not merely because of the force of passion with which they are spoken, but because of the powerful credence lent to those words by such a public and well known advocate as Peter, Paul & Mary. (A credence they refused to allow NOM to co-opt.)

We at Courage were so moved by their actions, and so inspired by the Prop 8 Trial Tracker/NOM Tour Tracker community that made this possible, that we decided to send Peter, Paul & Mary a “Thank You” card, which we launched on Facebook and Twitter over the weekend (and will be following up with an email action). The response from our community has been amazing so far and we want to keep the momentum going here on P8TT.

Click here to add your name to our card thanking Peter, Paul & Mary for taking a stand for marriage equality and read their letter to Brian Brown and NOM.

We’ll deliver your signature, along with thousands of other signatures, to Peter, Paul & Mary!

http://www.couragecampaign.org/ThankYouPPM

If you have thoughts on Peter, Paul & Mary’s courageous action, please share them in the comments as well.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Maggie Gallagher meets St. Peter

By Rob Tisinai

Here’s an animation experiment about NOM’s Maggie Gallagher that I made using this site, whose software has set off a little boom in text-to-speech, user-friendly, 3-D cartoons.

Please share if you like it. Note that the Closed Captioning button is active if you want subtitles.

Frankly, I think maybe we ought to do an animation festival. Make a video, upload it to youtube, and post the link here. Anybody want to give it a try?

NOM’s radio ad attack on Judge Walker: “Should ‘San Francisco Values’ be imposed on the rest of America?”

By Eden James

Get a load of this:

We’ll see where this new radio ad from NOM pops up.

Use this as an Open Thread to discuss NOM’s attack ad or whatever you would like to talk about…

NOM speaker scandal: Pastor compared gays to alcoholics, adulterers, pedophiles and more

(Cross-posted with permission from Good As You. Note that while Pastor Brad Brandon did speak at the NOM rally today, the comments highlighted in this post were made during a rally earlier this year as well as on his “Word of Truth” radio show. Listen to the audio links below.)

By Jeremy Hooper

Earlier this year, Minnesota Pastor Brad Brandon told a group of “traditional marriage” supporters that gay activists are teaching kids how to flog their logs:

Brandon, a young pastor from the Hastings area, was among several dozen people who showed up for the rally on Thursday afternoon. He fired up the crowd by saying that homosexuals teach kids to masturbate.

…

He said he was at the Capitol a few weeks ago. “A group of homosexuals were here and they were teaching a group of high school students that masturbation was okay right here in this rotunda! This must stop!

He added, “We are the last stand.”

Pastor says Minnesota gays teach kids how to masturbate [The Colu.mn]

Now today, this same Mr. Brandon is helping NOM get its own rocks off in St. Paul, joining in on the organization’s latest marriage tour stop:

Saint Paul, Minnesota
Summer for Marriage Tour Stop:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Minnesota State Capitol
St. Paul, MN 55155

Speakers:
Brian Brown, President, National Organization for Marriage
Bishop Bob Battle, Senior Pastor of Berean Church of God in Christ
Chuck Darrell, Director of Communications, Minnesota Family Council
Father Mike Becker, Archdiocese of Minneapolis St. Paul
Pastor Brad Brandon, KKMS Radio
Pastor Sam Crabtree, Bethlehem Baptist Church

Saint Paul, Minnesota [NOM]

“Gays want your kids to Pat the Robertson”: It’s all just more unsubstantiated silliness from the epic FAIL known as the NOM tour.

…

***

*MAJOR UPDATE: Explosive Brad Brandon audio:

Clip 1: Comparing gays to alcoholics:

(click to play audio clip)

*AUDIO SOURCE: Word of Truth Radio — 8/15/09

Clip 2: Directly likening gay people to adulterers and pedophiles:

(click to play audio clip)

*AUDIO SOURCE: Word of Truth Radio — 8/15/09

Clip 3: Gays are indoctrinating with Dora and Bob The Builder, thanks to guiding influence from folks like Satan and Hitler:

(click to play audio clip)

*AUDIO SOURCE: Word of Truth Radio — 8/15/09

Clip 4: Just like some of NOM’s past speakers, Brandon is also into the “gays can change” idea:

(click to play audio clip)

*AUDIO SOURCE: Word of Truth Radio — 8/15/09

UPDATE BY EDEN: NOM is proud of their association with Brad Brandon, of course. That’s why they posted this picture and quote on their web site today.

But just in case their site gets scrubbed later (Hi Louis!), here’s a screen grab so Brandon’s NOM speech doesn’t go down the memory hole:

UPDATE BY EDEN: Andy Kelley, our New Media Organizer, just sent a tweet to retweet if you’ve got a Twitter handle. Just click here to auto-tweet it from your account:

RT @EqualityOnTrial #NOMTour pastor compares gays to alcoholics, adulterers & pedophiles http://bit.ly/9Ive0D via @GoodAsYou #lgbt

UPDATE BY EDEN: A few folks in the comments have posted Rob Tisinai’s brilliant video that sets the record straight on the outrageous “pedophilia” comparisons spread by Pastors like Brad Brandon:

UPDATE BY EDEN: So, will NOM condemn the previous statements made by Pastor Brad Brandon? Or is NOM more than happy to provide a (prominent?) platform for this virulent strain of bigotry?

An amazing 24 hours: Round-up of NOM tour and marriage equality news

By Adam Bink

Over at my home blog, OpenLeft.com, I often do a round-up of LGBT-related news and actions that are worth noting. I thought I’d bring the same feature here for some noteworthy items you may have missed:

• Coverage of Larry Adams sign and our interview with him is certainly making the rounds on the Web. I’ve seen it on The Advocate, Dallas Voice, LGBTPOV, San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, AMERICABlog, Towleroad, Think Progress, and elsewhere. If you haven’t seen it, the interview is below.

• On that note, Freedom to Marry, a sponsor of NOM Tour Tracker, has a petition up calling on NOM to repudiate such anti-LGBT violence and rhetoric. You can sign here.

• As noted throughout the comments today, Louis (Hi, Louis!) Marinelli just made his blog private:

I think I speak for all of us, Louis, when I say my life just got about 0.23% less interesting. Sigh. We’ll miss reading your musings, especially the one where you said a baby wasn’t part of her family because she was adopted by a same-sex couple of a different race.

• EquallyWed.com, an online same-sex wedding magazine, discusses the tour and our coverage.

• Some independent coverage of today’s rally in Madison over at WisPolitics.com, including this insult from a NOM speaker:
  

  Among the speakers at the NOM rally were Madison Bishop Robert Morlino and Julaine Appling, CEO of the Wisconsin Family Council.

  Appling thanked the NOM supporters for coming, saying “you have real jobs, you have real lives.”

• If Brian Brown wants to talk about harrassment and intimidation, perhaps he should ask his own supporters. Here’s an equality supporter talking about her experience in Indianapolis yesterday.

• We didn’t get many other videos up yesterday of rally coverage in Indianapolis, so here’s one for folks to check out. As usual massive turnout #FAIL, and you can see that by how NOM always asks supporters to come closer so it looks like they have an actual crowd.

• HRC and Fred Sainz are spot on in their release regarding NOM today:

“The bus tour is a total sham, plain and simple,” said Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president of communications. “NOM’s highly-touted bus tour is less about so-called ‘traditional marriage’ and more about creating an elaborate and cynical stunt. NOM rolled out a summer of nationwide events in order to draw lawful protesters, all so that NOM and its allies can pepper ongoing lawsuits challenging public disclosure laws with made-up stories of harassment. This unprecedented victimization crusade is the lowest denominator of political activism, and it won’t fly.”

You can read the full release here.

We’ll be reporting from St. Paul tomorrow. See you then.

Meanwhile, if you have any links, videos or photos to share with the community in the comments, post away!

Adam Bink takes over NOMTourTracker.com site management: Please welcome Adam to the NTT community!

Hey everyone — I’ve got some great, great news. Adam Bink, who blogs for Open Left is going to be taking the lead on managing NOMTourTracker.com right up until the final event in Washington, D.C. on August 15.

After two amazing weeks of managing the Tour Tracker, we decided that giving Adam the reins would help increase our capacity to cover even more on the tour as well as give me the time to focus on promoting our tour coverage to the outside world, including more than 700,000 Courage Campaign Institute members.

If you’ve read Adam’s work over the years, you know that he’s one of the best bloggers out there, on LGBT issues as well as on the progressive movement. With his deep experience and knowledge of the LGBT movement and his passion for holding NOM accountable, I’m confident that we’ll be able to take NOMTourTracker.com to the next level.

Please take a moment in the comments and welcome Adam.

Eden James
Managing Director
Courage Campaign Institute

---

I said “Yes” because of you. Yes, you.

by Adam Bink

Hey there, fellow equality supporters! Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Adam Bink, an editor over at the progressive political blog OpenLeft.com, and I’m happy to be taking over the editorial reins from Eden here at NOMTrialTracker for the next coupla weeks. I want to do two things here- one is tell you a bit about myself, and two is get into how my role here came about.

OpenLeft is a blog founded in July 2007 to strengthen dialogues between “inside” and “outside” political organizations and activists. We’re also a blog that prides itself on combining writing and activism. We engage in strategic e-campaigns where we can. At OpenLeft, I’ve covered the LGBT “beat” since last year, and ramped it up when I started working with the No On 1 campaign to protect marriage equality in Maine (which is how I got to know Eden).

Last year, we raised over $1.4 million on ActBlue for the No On 1 campaign, helped supporters from all over the country travel to Maine, and built a killer web operation. I even had the opportunity to travel to Maine when readers contributed to cover my travel expenses. While on the ground, I both worked with the No On 1 team, as well as covered issues like the battle between the Catholic Bishop and equality supporters, helped raise awareness about the three LGBT elections that fall (along with 46 other blogs), and discussed some hidden truths behind past state ballot losses on marriage equality (you can read all of my coverage by clicking here).

I went on to cover the efforts to legalize the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in my home state of New York as well as New Jersey, and have been writing and organizing on this critical issue ever since. So I want to let you know that working on marriage equality is something I live and breathe personally, and I’m looking forward to working with you on that.

Second, let me get a little bit into how this new role came about.

Over the long weekend while Eden and I were at the Netroots Nation conference, he asked me to take over the blog management here at NOMTrialTracker for the rest of the tour. I’m a bit busy myself, so I wasn’t sure I’d have the time. Then I went back and re-read the posts for the last few weeks, along with your comments.

And I was inspired. I’ve been a longtime activist for marriage equality, and I’ve met folks out there in our great country at rallies and in campaign war rooms who just don’t give up. Their determination is inspiring. I saw the same thing in comment threads here. The research, photos, news tracking I see is fantastic. Even the snark (hi, Louis!) is awesome. And I knew we could finish this tour together, and even take it a step up.

So I’ll be e-working with our team to keep bringing you the same intrepid coverage of NOM and their big dose of #FAIL, day-in and day-out. And I’ll even be adding some new features to have a little fun at NOM’s expense. Together, we’ll keep beating back the narrative that NOM is a credible, successful organization- and keep marching towards winning equality for same-sex couples, nationwide.

Onward!