The New York Times reports that Equality California is laying the groundwork for a campaign to overturn Proposition 8 if the court challenge is not successful. Not surprisingly, the National Organization for Marriage does not approve:
Opponents of same-sex marriage said a second campaign would be a mistake. “The fact is that the people of California have already spoken,” said Brian S. Brown, the executive director in National Organization for Marriage, in Princeton, N.J. “And they don’t like being told they were wrong the first time.”
Interesting … especially considering that NOM itself was founded in response to the failed effort to pass a marriage amendment in Arizona in 2006:
After spending 15 years as the director of the marriage program at the Institute for American Values, [Maggie Gallagher] said, in 2003 she became aware that gay marriage was about to become a major political issue. She founded the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy as a think tank that would focus on the issue, using a $10,000 check from a Protestant group as seed money.
“I felt very strongly that the people who cared about marriage were not sufficiently involved in this debate,” she said.
After an anti-gay marriage initiative went down in 2006 in Arizona, she said, she wanted to create a group that could be more directly involved politically. In the summer of 2007, she worked with Robbie George, a Princeton professor and current board member of NOM, to create the group. This time they started out with $100,000 from a Catholic group and $125,000 from a Protestant one.
Apparently anti-marriage equality activists had no problems telling the people of Arizona “they were wrong the first time” and got the issue back on the ballot in 2008 and won.
But of course, nobody from NOM would never support that, would they?
Lopez: Are initiatives in Florida and Arizona less important? They seem to be getting less attention.
Maggie Gallagher: In Florida, 60 percent of voters are needed to pass Amendment 2. Getting to 60 percent will be tough, especially as opponents have a great deal more money. Nonetheless, it’s very close. In Arizona, it will take only a simple majority to pass Prop 102. I think we will win. Victory in Arizona will be sweet, because Arizona in 2006 was the only state ever to reject a marriage amendment. If at first you don’t succeed. . . .
So it really comes as no surprise that NOM has now announced that it is joining the effort to overturn Maine’s recent decision to legalize gay marriage because it doesn’t represent the will of the people:
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today announced that it will join the Maine Marriage Coalition to push for a People’s Veto of the same-sex marriage bill signed into law by Governor John Baldacci. Robert Emrich of Maine Marriage Alliance and Marc Mutty of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland are leading the coalition effort and filed for a People’s Veto to overturn Governor John Baldacci’s signature of the same-sex marriage bill this morning.
“NOM stands foursquare with our colleagues in Maine to give voters the ability to overturn this misguided legislation by referendum,” said Brian Brown, executive director of NOM. “We will devote staff, volunteers and resources to this battle in Maine. Marriage means a man and a woman, and we will work hard to ensure that voters in Maine have the ability to do what voters in every other state where they have had a chance have done and stand up for marriage as we have always known it.”
