NOM President Brian Brown Compares His Hateful March Against Same-Sex Marriage to the Civil Rights Movement

NOM's Brian Brown sees himself as the leader of a movement equivalent to MLK Jr's, Right Wing Watch reports.

Said Brown to Religious Right broadcaster Janet Mefferd:

We were hoping for 5,000 people and we ended up with over 10,000. We filled the whole area in front of the court when we marched. It was a diverse coalition, we had African American leaders, Hispanic leaders, State Sen. Ruben Diaz brought 30 buses from the Bronx; it was just amazing. What I was most happy about, we talked about this before the rally, the way everyone conducted themselves. We were chanting, we were united but when folks tried to get in our way, there were some gay marriage protesters who tried to get in front of the march and stop us even though we had a permit, everyone just knelt down and started praying. I was not alive during the Civil Rights Movement but this is what it must have felt like, people were just so ecstatic to stand up and they did it in a loving, respectful way but they weren’t going to be silenced.

Audio at RWW.

NOM Popped Together a Montage of Their Hate Rally: VIDEO

IF you missed NOM's hate rally in D.C. yesterday, you can catch it in bite-size form here.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

David Badash notes that of the eleven people in the video, at least eight are directly paid by NOM.

NOM Blasts Obama for Including Gay Binational Couples in Immigration Reform

National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown took a break from defending 'traditional marriage' yesterday to blast Obama for including binational same-sex couples in immigration reform:

"This is yet another example of the President playing politics rather than enforcing our nation’s laws and offering a true, workable solution. First, his Administration threw in the towel and refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Then, he came out of the closet on gay marriage. Now, he is apparently proposing a direct violation of DOMA, currying added favor with gay activists, many of whom have lavished contributions on his reelection campaign. Our nation has a lot of serious issues to resolve concerning immigration policy, but providing a safe haven for gays and lesbians from foreign countries in violation of American law is not one of them. Responsible immigration reform includes protecting America’s borders, providing access to needed workers, keeping terrorists out of our country and determining what to do with the millions of people already here illegally. This proposal from President Obama concerning homosexual immigration is not serious immigration reform."

(via good as you)

NOM President Brian Brown Paid More Than $500,000 a Year to Destroy the Lives of Others

Activist Fred Karger, of Rights Equal Rights, reminds us in an email sent yesterday that NOM President Brian Brown is rolling in cash. Karger made the note after several attempts to get a copy of the 2011 501(c)3 tax return of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM):

Maybe they don’t want us to know that NOM President Brian Brown made over $500,000 dollars in 2011.  He was paid $230,000 by NOM’s political operation where he claimed to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, and another whopping $230,000 from NOM’s Educational Fund where he claimed to work another 40 hours per week.  Add $47,000 in benefits and you have the “Half Million Dollar Man.”

NOM staff ran away from Karger when he went to their offices:

“When I went to the NOM Office a few days ago, the NOM staff literally ran away from me when I asked for a copy of their 501(c)3 tax return, which must be made available to the public,” said Fred Karger, founder of Rights Equal Rights and longtime NOM watchdog.

“One staffer leaving the office immediately ducked into the waiting elevator and wouldn’t respond to my request for the tax return.  I then rang the office doorbell (their door is locked tight); another staffer came to the door, wouldn’t open it and yelled out, ‘it’s on our web site!’  While standing there in disbelief, a minute later another NOM staff member, probably coming back from lunch, saw me and ran into the NOM office slamming the door behind him.”

NOM is on the losing end of its battle to stop gay marriage and Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher are just working now for all the money they’re pulling in.  “It’s pure greed, plain and simple,” added Karger.  “They are living the good life of the ‘One Percent’ while claiming to work 80 hours a week to destroy the lives of others.”

“We’ve seen their sleazy internal documents thanks to all the hard work of the State of Maine Attorney General’s office and the Maine Ethics Commission, who have been investigating NOM and Brian Brown for 3 ½ years on my charges of money laundering.  This investigation is a result of a sworn complaint we filed against NOM back in August 2009.”

Tax returns online here.

FRC Hate Group Leader Peter Sprigg Rips Obama's Inaugural Gay Rights Nod: VIDEO

Hate group leader Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council was invited on CNN this morning to sound off on Obama's call for gay rights in his inauguration speech.

Surprise, he didn't like it. Said Sprigg:

"The irony is, homosexuals already have all the same civil rights as anyone else. But that fact that all people are created equal as individuals does not mean all sexual behavior is equal or that all personal relationships have an equal value to society at large."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Sprigg's erroneous and bigoted sentiment was echoed by National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown in a statement on the group's blog:

"Gay and lesbian people are already treated equally under the law. They have the same civil rights as anyone else; they have the right to live as they wish and love whom they choose. What they don’t have is the right to redefine marriage for all of society. ...

...A presidential inauguration should be a time for the nation to come together; instead President Obama chose to voice his support for a radical agenda advanced by some of his biggest campaign contributors to redefine marriage for everyone. Marriage brings our nation together. The concept of gay 'marriage' would have been totally alien to our founding fathers, and the protection and advancement of marriage between one man and one woman will immeasurably serve the common good of this country and further strengthen our Union. Today the President should have thrown his support behind this beautiful vision of men and women coming together in love to raise the next generation. Nonetheless, we pro-marriage Americans pledge to defend the institution which the President has chosen to undermine once again."

NOM's Brian Brown Revels in Anti-Gay French Camaraderie: VIDEO

Last weekend's anti-gay marriage march in Paris, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of mostly Catholics was also attended by NOM's Brian Brown, who recorded a giddy video for his supporters.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign hailed the end of NOM, calling it a paper tiger:

A new opposition research report out from HRC today finds that NOM was largely a paper-tiger movement this past year. In New York specifically, NOM promised that it would spend $2 million to defeat the four Republican State Senators in New York who backed the legislature’s same-sex marriage bill in 2011. NOM then backpedalled, saying it would spend $250,000 in the primary fights. According to NOM PAC NY’s campaign finance reports, it only raised $45,000 and only spent $40,000 in 2012 – nowhere near what it claimed it would spend.

The momentum for marriage equality is indisputable. Four state legislatures passed same-sex marriage legislation during 2011-12, and voters in four states for the first time in history approved marriage equality on the ballot last November. This string of legislative and electoral victories would not have been possible without Republican support. National and statewide polling consistently shows majorities – including African Americans, Latinos, millennials, Democrats, and Independents - back gay and lesbian couples receiving marriage licenses. And marriage equality supporters have more intensity than opponents, according to a recent post-election poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.

Opponents’ financing is also drying up. They were outspent almost three to one last year, $12 million to $34 million in the ballot campaigns. More broadly, tax documents obtained by HRC last fall show that NOM’s funding declined by one-third for 2011 – and that a whopping 75 percent of the anti-gay organization’s funding came from just two donors. It’s not surprising then that NOM is unable to follow through on the threats the group makes to Republicans supportive of marriage equality.

Read HRC's report HERE.

Watch Brian Brown, AFTER THE JUMP...