NOM's shameless tactics exposed

The National Organization for Marriage.    Wouldn't you think those would be good people, even if misguidedly thinking that they alone own the rights to say who is entitled to marry?

Not so.   These are evil, manipulative, despicable people.   The odious Maggie Gallagher, whose writings I detested years ago when the AJC carried her weekly opinion column, is one of its leaders.

Now NOM's tactics have been exposed when a Maine judge unsealed memos from NOM introduced in a suit over the group's right to keep its donors names secret.   Why Maine?   Because NOM had been a major force in the campaign where voters overturned that state's law that legalized same-sex marriage.

NOM has an official designation as a social welfare organization and thus is entitled to avoid federal disclosure requirements.   But that is a completely false mask, and these memos prove that it is first and foremost a political activism organization.

Thanks to an editorial in the New York Times for this information:

1.  In the memos NOM brags about its "crucial" role in passage of California's Proposition 8.

2.  They describe their use of robo-calls to scare residents in different states away from supporting marriage equality.

3.  They talk of a plan to "expose Obama as a social radical."

It gets worse.   Much worse.

 4.  One memo is quoted:  "The strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks -- two key Democratic constituencies."

5.  Another stated aim is to manipulate Hispanic voters by making opposition to gay marriage "a key badge of Latino identity."

And this (quoting from the Times editorial):

"These are not the musing of a marginalized group.   The day after the memos became public, National Organization for Marriage's co-founder and chairman emeritus, Robert George, was appointed by John Boehner . . . to a United States commission focused on addressing religious intolerance and extremism around the globe."

"Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have publicly aligned themselves with the group and signed its pledge to work aggressively from the White House against same-sex marriage."

It's time for NOM to be held accountable for the misuse of its privileged status as a social service organization.   Either stop all political activity or lose the protections for non-political groups.

Ralph