In one corner, there is the gay and lesbian community, rich Republicans, Mayor Bloomberg, celebrities, and everyone else who believes in equal protection under the law, in support of same-sex marriage legislation in NY. In the opposite corner are the other side of a 50/50 split—those who claim to "hate the sin but not the sinner," like state Senator Ruben Diaz and the National Organization for Marriage. NOM sounds relatively innocuous until you realize that they are a wealthy, opaque organization that is beholden to "hard-core anti-gay extremists" and run patently false advertisements on TV. Both sides are battling for the fate of a gay marriage bill before the Assembly adjourns on June 20.
Today's Daily News details how the tax-exempt NOM's coffers have grown to $13 million in the last 18 months, but no one is quite sure where the money is coming from. The Knights of Columbus, the Catholic group that got "Under God" inserted in the Pledge of Allegiance in the '50s "raised $1.9 million for the group in 2008-2009." Because NOM keeps refusing to release the names of their donors, the organization is being investigated in Maine and four other states. In New York, the group was forced to form a PAC, and a civil rights attorney describes NOM as "basically just a shell group that exists to funnel money into ant-gay causes from a small set of secret donors."
Controversial television ads and paper fliers released by NOM claimed that "Massachusetts public schools teach kids as young as kindergartners about gay marriage. Parents have no legal right to object!" These claims were determined to be false by PolitiFact.
This hasn't stopped the organization from spreading lies, and its president (who makes $172K a year) tells the Daily News that "If marriage is redefined, then New York schools will soon be teaching that it's just as good for for Jimmy to grow up and marry Johnny as it is to marry Mary." Sen. Ruben Diaz stands with the organization on "Constitutional" authority: "I'm proud and honored to stand in America with people who know the Constitution doesn't let gays marry." Nevermind that the Constitution also deemed African Americans worthy of only three-fifths of personhood (among other things). But what would the founders think of NOM's His & Her cock ring logo?
