National Organization for Marriage
Encyclopedia
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a nonprofit
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 political association established in 2007 to work against legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States
Same-sex marriage in the United States
The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage in the United States, but such marriages are recognized by some individual states. The lack of federal recognition was codified in 1996 by the Defense of Marriage Act, before Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses...

, specifically to pass California Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...

 banning same-sex marriage in California. The group has opposed civil union legislation and has fought to have adoption agencies retain the ability to refuse to place children with same-sex couples. NOM's current president is Brian S. Brown
Brian S. Brown
Brian S. Brown is an American activist and president of the National Organization for Marriage , a non-profit advocacy organization that works to prevent or overturn the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.-Activism:...

.

Leadership

NOM's founding board of directors consisted of:
  • Maggie Gallagher
    Maggie Gallagher
    Margaret Gallagher Srivastav , better known by her working name Maggie Gallagher, is an American writer, commentator, and opponent of same-sex marriage. She has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995, and has published five books...

    , President
  • Brian S. Brown
    Brian S. Brown
    Brian S. Brown is an American activist and president of the National Organization for Marriage , a non-profit advocacy organization that works to prevent or overturn the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.-Activism:...

    , Executive Director (former Executive Director of Family Institute of Connecticut)
  • Robert P. George
    Robert P. George
    Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, where he lectures on constitutional interpretation, civil liberties and philosophy of law. He also serves as the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions...

    , Chairman of the Board
  • Neil Corkery, Treasurer
  • Chuck Stetson (Chairman of the Board, Bible Literacy Project)
  • Ken Von Kohorn (Chairman of the Board, Family Institute of Connecticut
    Family Institute of Connecticut
    The Family Institute of Connecticut is an interdenominational, conservative 501 non-profit educational organization founded in 1989. Its stated goal is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society and to promote Judeo-Christian ethical and moral values in the culture and...

    )
  • Luis Tellez (President, Witherspoon Institute
    Witherspoon Institute
    The Whitherspoon Institute is a conservative think tank in Princeton, New Jersey.-Overview:Founded in 2003 by Robert P. George and others, the institute is named after John Witherspoon. It shares many scholars with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Fellows include Jean...

     Board of Trustees)
  • Matthew S. Holland
    Matthew S. Holland
    Matthew Scott Holland is the president of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.- Biography :Matthew S. Holland is president of in Orem, Utah. Holland was selected as UVU's sixth president by the Utah Board of Regents in the spring of 2009 and officially began his tenure on June 1 of that year...

     (President, Utah Valley University),


In April 2009, Holland was replaced on the board by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...

 (science fiction novelist and faculty member, Southern Virginia University
Southern Virginia University
Southern Virginia University is a liberal arts college located in Buena Vista, Virginia that promotes standards and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while not being owned nor operated by the Church...

.) In September 2011, law professor John Eastman replaced Gallagher as the Chairman of the Board.

Brian S. Brown is the current president. Law professor Robert P. George is chairman emeritus. Gallagher is still a board member and works on specific projects for the group.

Nonprofit status and funding

The group operates two nonprofit arms: a 501(c)(4) political advocacy group called National Organization for Marriage Inc. established in January 2008, and a 501(c)(3) called NOM Education Fund established in July 2008. The latter arm is not entitled to influence legislation or political campaigns. The Firefighters' Defense Fund, which existed to fund a successful sexual harassment lawsuit by firemen who claim they were forced to participate in a gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

 parade, was a NOM Education Fund project.

The group also operates a number of state-based political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

s such as National Organization for Marriage PAC New York founded in June 2009, and National Organization for Marriage California PAC founded in February 2009. The state PACs receive funding from the main 501(c)(4) NOM arm.

NOM has said that it has a wide base of grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 support, but the majority of its funding is from a very few large anonymous donors. In NOM's IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 filing for 2009, three donations of $2.4 million, $1.2 million and $1.1 million made up 68% of NOM's contributions and grants income of a little over $7.1 million, and just five donations made up 75%. In 2010, Jesse Zwick, then a reporter for the Washington Independent, said he uncovered a 2009 donation to NOM—$1.43 million from the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....

—that reporter Luke Johnson later said was apparently not reported to the IRS by NOM.

Gay rights activist Fred Karger
Fred Karger
Fred S. Karger is an American political consultant, gay rights activist and watchdog, former actor, and candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US Presidential election...

 gave his opinion that NOM is connected to the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

, with large private donations coming from Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 sources. Gallagher responded by denying any connection to the LDS movement "except that a Mormon serves on NOM's board." Former board member Matthew S. Holland is a Mormon as is his replacement Orson Scott Card, and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 board member Robert P. George has served since August 2010 as an editorial advisor to the Deseret News, a Mormon newspaper. Reporter Zwick demonstrated that at least one major donation in 2009 came from a Catholic group, the Knights of Columbus.

The organization's financial disclosures for the 2009 tax year reported revenues of about $7.4 million including investment income, and expenditures of about $7.5 million.

Activity

NOM has been involved in ballot measures, legislative elections, judicial elections, and issue advertising in various states. NOM was involved in the briefly successful Proposition 8 campaign in California in 2008, as well as a similar successful campaign in Maine one year later. NOM was also involved in unsuccessful efforts to pass an amendment eliminating same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2007. NOM participated in efforts to block same-sex marriage in New Jersey, and has unsuccessfully attempted to block same-sex marriage legalization in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. On June 16, 2009, NOM announced the formation of NOM PAC New York, a political action committee with a goal of providing $500,000 to fund primary challenges against any Republican New York state senator who votes for gay marriage. NOM stated that they were "also looking to aid Democratic candidates who want to buck the establishment on the marriage issue, and to help in general election contests." In 2010, NOM was involved in successful efforts to oust three Iowa Supreme Court judges who had concurred in a decision that effectively legalized same-sex marriage there.

In 2009, Peter Montgomery of the progressive organization People for the American Way
People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Under U.S. tax code, People For the American Way is organized as a tax-exempt 501 non-profit organization.-Purpose:...

 stated: "You have to take [NOM] seriously [...] They've raised a tremendous amount of money that they're funneling into various states."

2007 Massachusetts constitutional amendment

One of the group's first public acts was to campaign in support of a proposed 2007 Massachusetts constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage by restricting marriage to "the union of one man and one woman", in response to the Massachusetts court decision
Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only heterosexual couples to marry...

 that legalized same-sex marriage in that state. The NOM-supported amendment failed to pass. The campaign included a billboard comparing representative Angelo Puppolo
Angelo Puppolo
Angelo Puppolo is a politician from Springfield, Massachusetts. A Democrat, he currently serves as the 12 Hampden District Representative in the Massachusetts House of Representatives....

 to Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...

 and Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...

 after he changed his position
Flip-flop (politics)
A "flip-flop" , U-turn , or backflip is a sudden real or apparent change of policy or opinion by a public official, sometimes while trying to claim that both positions are consistent with each other...

 to oppose the amendment.

California Proposition 8

NOM was first formed to support the passage of California Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...

 in 2008, which amended the state Constitution
California Constitution
The document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in advance of California attaining U.S. statehood in 1850, was superseded by the current constitution, which...

 to discontinue same-sex marriage ceremonies. The amendment defined marriage as the union between one man and one woman. NOM contributed $1.8 million to the Proposition 8 effort, and has been described as being "instrumental" in the success of the initiative. Proposition 8 was passed by voters 52% to 48%, and involved an estimated $83M by both sides of the issue. The amendment was in force until United States district court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

 Judge Vaughn R. Walker
Vaughn R. Walker
Vaughn R. Walker served as a district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011.-Biography:Walker was born in Watseka, Illinois, in 1944...

 overturned it in August 2010, in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger
Perry v. Schwarzenegger
Perry v. Schwarzenegger is a federal lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California challenging the federal constitutionality of Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that amended the California Constitution to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples,...

, ruling that it violated both the Due Process
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...

 and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

.

Stand for Marriage Maine

In 2009, NOM was the primary contributor to Stand For Marriage Maine, the organization that led the successful campaign for Proposition 1 in Maine, a voter referendum which repealed the law passed by the legislature to allow same-sex marriages in the state. Voters passed the referendum 53%-47% out of 567,057 votes cast. Out of the initial $343,000 in contributions, NOM provided some $160,000.

NOM contributed over $1.6 million to Stand For Marriage Maine; by reports as of October 2009, NOM had contributed 63% of that group's funding.

NOM has not released the names of its donors funding Stand For Marriage Maine (see below at Alleged disclosure violations).

Advertising campaigns

On April 8, 2009, NOM began a "2 Million for Marriage" (2M4M) initiative with the intention of organizing two million activists nationwide. When NOM used the abbreviation "2M4M" for their "2 Million for Marriage" campaign, the media noted that in personal ads, "2M4M" is code for two men seeking a third male sexual partner. NOM did not secure the domain name and other net resources that use the "2M4M" term. Christopher Ambler, a consultant in rapid web development who characterizes himself as a "happily married straight guy", purchased the domain "2M4M.org" and branded it as "Two Men For Marriage," running material counter to NOM's 2M4M aims.

Gathering Storm

The 2M4M campaign used an advertisement, "Gathering Storm", in which actors, primarily Mormons from Arizona, standing against a dramatic storm-cloud background, voiced opposition to same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

.

The Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...

, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lobbying group and political action committee, described the ad saying that, in it, "actors make disproven claims about marriage for lesbian and gay couples."

New York Times columnist Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...

 described the "Gathering Storm" advertisement as "an Internet camp classic", and it was parodied by Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

, the website Funny or Die
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates...

, and in the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

episode "Proposition Infinity
Proposition Infinity
"Proposition Infinity" is the fourth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom Futurama, and originally aired July 8, 2010 on Comedy Central. In the episode, Amy Wong and Bender fall in love and begin a culturally taboo "robosexual" relationship...

".

Other advertisements

On April 30, 2009, NOM and Carrie Prejean
Carrie Prejean
Caroline Michelle "Carrie" Prejean Boller is an American model, author, former Miss California USA 2009 and Miss USA 2009 first runner-up. Prejean received national attention in 2009 when she told a pageant judge that marriage should be between a man and a woman; pageant judge and gossip blogger...

 launched another ad campaign against gay marriage, called "No Offense". In the ad, they object to being characterized as "outright bigots" because of their stance. After semi-nude photos of Prejean were posted on the Internet, causing some to accuse NOM of hypocrisy, NOM issued a press release stating that Prejean had appeared with NOM as a private citizen and not as a spokesperson. In the wake of the revelation that Prejean had made masturbation videos, NOM removed reference to the video from the front page of their website.

On May 28, 2009, NOM rolled out an advertising campaign in New York, including a video spot. The Christian Science Monitor described the spot as listing a "litany of grievances" as an "ominous score" plays, with a potentially embarrassing error for a campaign based on education: misspelling marriage as marraige.

New York Congressional phone campaign

NOM spent over $112,000 on a get-out-the-vote
Get out the vote
"Get out the vote" are terms used to describe two categories of political activity, both aimed at increasing the number of votes cast in one or more elections.- Non-partisan contexts :...

 phone campaign for Conservative Party of New York
Conservative Party of New York
The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party active in the state of New York. It is not part of any nationwide party, nor is it affiliated with the American Conservative Party, which it predates by over 40 years....

 candidate Douglas Hoffman in the contentious 2009 House of Representatives campaign for New York's 23rd District
New York's 23rd congressional district special election, 2009
The 2009 special election for New York's 23rd congressional district was held on November 3, 2009, to select the successor to Republican John M. McHugh...

. After pro-same-sex-marriage Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race, Hoffman lost to Democrat Bill Owens, who also opposed gay marriage, by a 2.3% margin. State senators said that this congressional race had an impact on the New York State Senate's December 2, 2009 vote against same-sex marriage legislation; all 30 Republican state senators voted "no". Following her unsuccessful campaign, Scozzafava acknowledged that her name had begun being used as a verb: "scozzafavaed". When the gay Republican organization GOProud had a booth at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, Brown commented, "[W]e have a message for GOProud on marriage: If you try to elect pro-gay-marriage Republicans, we will Dede Scozzafava them." In addition, Maggie Gallagher
Maggie Gallagher
Margaret Gallagher Srivastav , better known by her working name Maggie Gallagher, is an American writer, commentator, and opponent of same-sex marriage. She has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995, and has published five books...

 has used the phrase "the Dede effect" to describe Republican lawmakers' fear of alienating their constituents by voting for same-sex marriage legislation.

Summer for Marriage Tour

In 2010, NOM staged a 23-city tour holding rallies against same-sex marriage. The rallies attracted supporters and pro-gay marriage protesters. At many stops along the tour, NOM supporters were outnumbered by counter-protesters supporting same-sex marriage; in Atlanta, LGBT rights supporters outnumbered opponents of same-sex marriage by a ratio of ten to one. The tour ended with a rally at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., while pro-gay marriage activists held a simultaneous event at the Freedom Plaza
Freedom Plaza
Freedom Plaza, originally known as Western Plaza, is an open plaza in Northwest Washington, D.C., United States, located at the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, adjacent to Pershing Park. Constructed in 1980, the plaza is mostly composed of stone, inlaid with a depiction of parts...

.

After Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon"...

 and Paul Stookey, the surviving members of Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...

, discovered that NOM had been using their recording of "This Land is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...

" rallies in this tour, they sent a letter to Brown requesting that NOM cease using their recording, stating that NOM's philosophy was "directly contrary to the advocacy position" held by the group. Similarly, after John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...

 was informed that NOM had used his song "Pink Houses
Pink Houses
"Pink Houses" is a song written and sung by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on the 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records. It reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984...

" at one of their events, his publicist wrote a letter (at his instruction) stating Mellencamp's support for same-sex marriage and asking that NOM stop using his music.

Campaign finance lawsuit

NOM filed a lawsuit in US district court, on free speech grounds, seeking the right to run ads in the Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

 governor's race without complying with that state's campaign finance laws, including both campaign financing contribution limits and reporting requirements. In October 2010 the suit was dismissed; the court called the filing "disorganized, vague and poorly constructed" and gave the group one week to refile the lawsuit. NOM appealed to federal court, who ruled against them.

Civil union opposition

NOM has opposed civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...

 recognition, calling it "a direct threat to marriage and the religious liberties" and stating that "civil union statutes across the country have been used to sue business owners and professionals who run their practices by their deeply held religious beliefs." It has campaigned against the passage of Illinois's Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, SB 1716.

Iowa judge retention vote campaign

On November 2, 2010, NOM ran a bus tour through Iowa campaigning for removal of three Iowa Supreme Court
Iowa Supreme Court
The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. As constitutional head of the Iowa Judicial Branch, the Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices....

 justices then up for a retention vote, following the court's unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien
Varnum v. Brien
Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 , is an Iowa court case in which six same-sex couples filed suit against Timothy Brien, Polk County Recorder, for refusing to grant marriage licenses to them...

; the retention vote was "the most controversial...and one of the closest" races on the ballot. All three justices lost the retention vote, the first time any judge had lost that vote since Iowa initiated the retention system in 1962.

New York same-sex marriage opposition

NOM actively opposed legalization of same-sex marriage in New York
Same-sex marriage in New York
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of New York became legal on July 24, 2011, under the Marriage Equality Act, which was passed on June 24, 2011, by the New York State Legislature and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on the same day...

 in 2011. The group sponsored a rally in the Bronx in May 2011 with state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., a Democrat. After same-sex marriage was legalized in the state by the legislature in June 2011, NOM pledged to spend $2 million to defeat the four Republicans who voted for the bill to legalize it, and has erected signs in the districts of those senators, warning "You're Next". Wealthy same-sex marriage supporters vowed to finance the targeted senators.

NOM supported four "Let the People Vote" rallies later in July of the same year, with the stated purpose of having the voters decide the issue versus the bill passed by the state's legislature.

2012 presidential pledge

On August 3, 2011, NOM unveiled a pledge for 2012 Republican presidential candidates
Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2012
The 2012 Republican presidential primaries are the selection processes in which voters of the Republican Party will choose their nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election. The primary contest began with a fairly wide field, and is the first presidential primary...

. Signers pledge that they will support a federal marriage amendment
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment H.J. Res. 56 was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have limited marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman...

, appoint federal judges who are originalists
Originalism
In the context of United States constitutional interpretation, originalism is a principle of interpretation that tries to discover the original meaning or intent of the constitution. It is based on the principle that the judiciary is not supposed to create, amend or repeal laws but only to uphold...

 and thus "reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to gay marriage in our Constitution", defend the Defense of Marriage Act
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...

 in court, "establish a presidential commission on religious liberty to investigate and document reports of Americans who have been harassed or threatened for exercising key civil rights to organize, to speak, to donate or to vote for marriage", and "advance legalization to return to the people of the District of Columbia their right to vote on marriage." This pledge has been signed by candidates Tim Pawlenty
Tim Pawlenty
Timothy James "Tim" Pawlenty , also known affectionately among supporters as T-Paw, is an American politician who served as the 39th Governor of Minnesota . He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election from May to August 2011...

 (who initially declined), Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

 (reversing an earlier stance), Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...

, Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum
Richard John "Rick" Santorum is a lawyer and a former United States Senator from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Santorum was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference -making him the third-ranking Senate Republican from 2001 until his leave in 2007. Santorum is considered both a social...

, and Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing , a post she has held since 2007. The district includes several of the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Woodbury, and Blaine as well as Stillwater and St. Cloud.She is currently a...

.

Disclosure violation allegations

In 2009, Californians Against Hate
Californians Against Hate
Californians Against Hate is an American non-profit organization public benefit corporation which works as a political watchdog organization. It was founded in 2008 to draw attention to the major donors to qualify and pass California’s Proposition 8...

 (CAH) filed a formal complaint with the IRS against NOM, saying that NOM had refused to make its IRS 990 forms public, as required by law. CAH representatives went to "the Princeton, New Jersey, offices of the National Organization for Marriage twice to get copies of their IRS 990 reports, to no avail," said CAH's president, Fred Karger
Fred Karger
Fred S. Karger is an American political consultant, gay rights activist and watchdog, former actor, and candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US Presidential election...

. "Then our representative, Ben Katzenberg, sent two certified letters to the NOM office on March 18, 2009, requesting its two 990 forms. Federal law requires NOM to furnish copies of these IRS filings within 30 days after the request has been received. And 40 days later, still no 990s." NOM has since posted 990 forms for 2007 and 2008 on their website.

In March 2009, Karger filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission
California Fair Political Practices Commission
SUMMARYThe California Fair Political Practices Commission is the government body that enforces political campaign, lobbying, and conflict of interest laws in the state of California, similar to what the Federal Elections Commission does at the federal level...

 alleging that the National Organization for Marriage was established by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to direct church funds toward the passage of Proposition 8. A church spokesman and NOM's then-president Maggie Gallagher both denied the allegations.

Accusations by Karger also lead the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to schedule consideration of an investigation. Maine laws require that organizations which solicit more than $5,000 for a ballot question campaign file disclosure reports. NOM has contributed $1.6 million to Stand For Marriage Maine, as of October 23, 2009, without filing any disclosure reports. The commission approved an investigation on a 3-2 vote, overriding the recommendation of their staff. NOM responded by filing suit, claiming that the state's election laws violate the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

. NOM used the likelihood of their suit's success as an argument to obtain a federal restraining order which would keep them from having to provide donor names before the date of the election; the request was turned down by federal Judge David Brock Hornby
David Brock Hornby
David Brock Hornby is a United States federal judge.Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, Hornby attended Harvard University, receiving a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1965, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1969. He was a law clerk, Hon. John Minor Wisdom, U.S. Court of Appeals,...

. In January 2010, representatives of the group were subpoenaed to appear before the commission. In February, the group requested that those subpoenas be dropped, but the commission voted unanimously to deny that request. On May 23, 2010, Judge John H. Rich III of the U.S. District Court of Maine ordered NOM to submit bank statements and similar documentation, covering the dates from January 1, 2009 forward. The documents were to be submitted to Maine's Commission on Government Ethics and Election Practices within seven days of his ruling. On June 24, 2010, the commission rejected NOM's claim that the commission lacked appropriate authority and should thus cease the investigation. In February 2011, Hornby issued a summary judgment ruling Maine's disclosure law valid, which NOM appealed and lost in August 2011. In September 2011, the federal court denied NOM's request to have the case reheard.

In Iowa, the organization faces accusations from the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund and One Iowa
One Iowa
One Iowa is the largest LGBT rights activist group in Iowa. It was instrumental in the state's Supreme Court ruling to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage.-Background:...

 that it has failed to properly disclose its contributors. NOM's efforts in that state included spending $86,060 on the failed state House of Representatives campaign of Stephen Burgmeier.

NOM executive director Brown has stated that the group does not release donor names to prevent donor intimidation by proponents of same-sex marriage. The group used that argument in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to exempt them from California's disclosure laws.

"NOM Exposed"

In September 2010, the Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...

 (HRC) and the Courage Campaign
Courage Campaign
The Courage Campaign is a California-based human rights campaign and progressive advocacy organization with more than 700,000 followers, working on a variety of causes, including the repeal of Proposition 8, California budget reforms,, and ballot procedures...

 launched "NOM Exposed", a website which says it documents "Truth, Lies, and Connections about the So-Called National Organization for Marriage." The site contains profiles of NOM leaders and prominent supporters; details of NOM's links to Latter-Day Saints, the Catholic Church and conservative Christian organizations such as Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...

, the Knights of Columbus and Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...

; information about NOM's budget; and an interactive map with information on NOM activities in specific states. HRC spokesperson Michael Cole characterized NOM as "a secretive player in antigay politics, which is posing as an offshore company for antigay religious money"; NOM president Brown countered that NOM is "not out to hoodwink voters... [but is] talking openly about same-sex marriage" and predicted that the "NOM Exposed" website would backfire. Brown also said that HRC's "heavy-handed attacks on NOM only prove that we are the key national organization fighting for marriage as one man and one woman."

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...

 included NOM on its winter 2010 list of anti-gay groups. Specifically, the Center concluded that NOM has continued to propagate "demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals" that are "based on known falsehoods." NOM president Brown took issue with the inclusion, stating that NOM "isn't about being anti-anyone".

Resignation of Louis Marinelli

On April 8, 2011, Louis Marinelli, a 25-year-old NOM activist and online strategist who describes himself as "the one behind the 2010 Summer for Marriage Tour", had driven the bus during that tour, and had moderated many of NOM's web properties (including its Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 page, its Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 account, and the Tour blog), resigned from his affiliation with the organization, announced his support for same-sex marriage, and categorically apologized for and repudiated his past actions on behalf of the organization. He also shut down the Facebook page he had built up for NOM, which had 290,000 followers. The next day, NOM created a new official Facebook page (to replace Marinelli's), and released this statement: "Louis Marinelli worked in a volunteer capacity as a bus driver during our summer marriage tour. Around this time, NOM began to pay him as a part-time consultant for helping us expand our internet reach. He has since chosen a different focus. We wish him well." NOM president Brown publicly downplayed Marinelli's role with the organization, however, after Marinelli published several articles critical of NOM on his website, Brown contacted him and said that if the articles were not removed, NOM would pursue legal action against Marinelli for violation of a confidentiality agreement
Non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement , also known as a confidentiality agreement , confidential disclosure agreement , proprietary information agreement , or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties...

 he had signed as a contractor with access to specialized information.

Photo manipulation

In October 2011, the blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 Good As You showed that NOM used uncredited photographs of 2008 rallies for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 on its website to make it appear that the crowds supporting Obama were actually NOM supporters.

The story was subsequently picked up by media including The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show (TV series)
The Rachel Maddow Show is a news and opinion television program that airs weeknights on MSNBC at 9:00 p.m. ET. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained popularity with her frequent appearances as a liberal pundit on various MSNBC programs. It is based on her former radio show of the same name...

and Instinct Magazine. Brown dismissed the photo controversy as a misdirection effort by "Rachel Maddow and her friends on the left". NOM removed the photos in the collage, referring to one of them as "a common use photo in the public domain". The images included one Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 photo and two that were copyrighted under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 license requiring that the photographer be credited.

External links

  • National Organization for Marriage - official site
  • NOM Exposed - a critical website sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign
    Human Rights Campaign
    The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...

     and the Courage Campaign
    Courage Campaign
    The Courage Campaign is a California-based human rights campaign and progressive advocacy organization with more than 700,000 followers, working on a variety of causes, including the repeal of Proposition 8, California budget reforms,, and ballot procedures...

  • Maggie Gallagher debates Gavin Newsom on gay marriage in a May 2009 interactive debate from NOW on PBS Online
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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