Anti-Gay Marriage Propagandist Frank Schubert Says Election Losses 'Don't Signal Any Shift At All' in Public Opinion

Frank Schubert, the advertising propagandiast and mastermind behind the Prop 8 ads and the ads in all four states that lost same-sex marriage measures this last election, suddenly thinks the losses have no significance:

"The activists in the homosexual movement are very aggressive trying to spin the election results as somehow signaling a big shift in public opinion on the issue of gay marriage, when in fact it doesn't signal any shift at all," he remarks.

Schubert goes on to explain that last Tuesday, traditional marriage lost in liberal states by a relatively small percentage -- even though its supporters were outspent considerably. He also told OneNewsNow that the poll should reassure traditional marriage proponents the movement is still very much alive.

He has to think that. His career depends on it.

Writes Jeremy Hooper:

Interesting, huh? In the run up to the election, Schubert & Co. told us that everything was riding on these state battles and the presidential contest. But now that the everything that they told us was at stake blew up in their faces, with American reelecting its first pro-equality President and defeating discrimination in four states, we are are suddenly told that the historic outcome was of no significance whatsoever. Isn't that convenient?

Frank Schubert's Lying, Anti-Gay Echo Chamber: VIDEO

Frank Schubert, the NOM-allied strategist, Prop 8 mastermind, and advertising propagandist, released the same ad in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, and Washington - the four states with same-sex marriage on the ballots - two weeks before the election.

It's the same ad he used in California to pass Prop. 8.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Orionid, DADT's Legacy, Adele's Son, Ireland

Tonight is the best night to see the annual Orionid meteor shower.

The group American Atheists are taking on Mormonism's membership clauses. The church responded thusly, "This group seems not to know that there have been black members of the Church since our earliest history, and there are many faithful gay members of the Church today." Black men simply couldn't be ordained as lay priests until 1978.

Police in Brookfield, WI, are looking for Radcliffe Haughton for his alleged role in the shooting at a spa today. Seven people were shot, three have died and police are disarming explosives Haughton reportedly left behind. [Update: Haughton was found dead from a self-inflicted gun shot wound.]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Madonna's Erotica, a review of what it's all about.

National Organization for Marriage operative Frank Schubert's anti-equality crusade is big business: "Schubert collected $958,594 for his anti-equality work in North Carolina earlier this year. In the four marriage ballot states, Schubert has collected $967,567.88 in Washington; $492,680 in Maryland; $303,307.69 in Minnesota; and $200,043.46 in Maine. While these funds are likely used to pay for advertising, it’s unclear what percentage is lining Schubert’s pockets."

Full trailer of the Osama bin Laden flick Zero Dark Thirty.

Adele welcomed her first child this weekend, a baby boy. No name has been released.

SNL takes on the second great presidential debate.

An interview with Australian electopop band Van She.

Bureaucratic legacy: Servicemembers Legal Defense Network will spend the next few years removing "dishonorable discharge" and other DADT labels that remain on the records of servicemembers kicked out for being gay.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson are trying to stop a right-wing lawsuit that wants to overturn California's ban on "ex-gay therapy" for minors.

More on late Sen. George McGovern's ahead-of-his-time politics, from Bruce Miroff: "Mr. McGovern’s 1972 campaign is indelibly associated with the mass movements of the late 1960s — the antiwar movement above all, but also feminism and the nascent movement for gay liberation. As a son of a Methodist minister, growing up in small prairie towns during the Depression, he was an unlikely spokesman for the political and cultural aspirations of an emerging 'counterculture.' ... His sense of fairness and tolerance made him open to new cultural forces alien to his upbringing, even when some of their issues — especially abortion — left him uncomfortable."

In case you were wondering, Ted Haggard, the right-wing pastor caught with his pants down in 2008, has shifted gears and now believes that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

"Is Obama the 'wrong' kind of Christian?"

As you probably guessed, Paranormal Activity 4 won top slot at the box office with $30 million.

The marijuana legalization fight faces some key votes next month: "Voters in Colorado, Washington state and Oregon are set to vote Nov. 6 on whether to legalize and tax marijuana sales, raising the possibility of a showdown with the federal government, which views pot as an illegal narcotic."

Irish Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore reiterated his support for marriage equality at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association conference: "As I have stated elsewhere, the right of same-sex couples to marry is not a gay rights issue, it is a civil rights issue, and one that I support."

The CrossPoint Church in Hutchinson, Kansas, booted long-time congregant and band member Chad Graber because he's gay. "He switched from struggling with his sin to embracing it," said senior pastor Andy Addis.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/21/3876912/church-cites-scripture-in-barring.html#storylink=cpy

Equality Foes Begin Anti-Gay Ad Campaign in Washington State: VIDEO

Opponents of the Referendum 74 ballot measure, which would put Washington's legislatively-passed marriage equality law into effect, began running ads today.

Watch the first one, AFTER THE JUMP...

Writes Dominic Holden in Slog:

The genius here—which has been the trademark of Frank Schubert, behind this campaign and others to defeat gay marriage—is making the case that voters can oppose gay marriage without being a bigot.

The Washington Post reported earlier this week on Washington state's battle:

With its relatively low churchgoing population and social libertarianism, Washington may be the state where voters are most likely to approve gay marriage. But opponents say the early polls are deceptive. Chip White, the communications director for Preserve Marriage Washington, says things will change once its TV ads start.

“We do not need to match the other side dollar-for-dollar to get our message out,” said White, whose group has raised nearly $1.8 million so far. And he argues that polls in past elections have routinely overstated voter support for gay marriage.

His group has had strong backing from Catholic leaders as well as many Protestant churches. Its largest donor is the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage, which has given $725,000.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Marriage 'Was Made by God' Says One of Two New Anti-Gay Ads Airing in Minnesota: VIDEOS

Minnesota for Marriage, the NOM-backed organization fighting to pass an amendment on the ballot this November that would constitutionally declare marriage to be between a man and a woman, released two new ads today.

Frank Schubert, the man behind the campaign, told the AP the group will spend $175,000 to air the ads in the coming weeks.

The AP reports:

Both ads avoid an aggressive tone, with one featuring a narrator who says that "everyone has a right to love who they choose." But together they argue that male-female marriage has been a building block of society for centuries, and that inserting that definition into Minnesota's constitution would prevent judges or elected officials from changing it without the OK of voters.

"Marriage is more than a commitment between two loving people," an unseen narrator says in one ad, over images of straight couples getting married, raising children and showing affection. "It was made by God, for the creation and care of the next generation."

Schubert, who was behind the campaign that passed Prop 8 in California, said more ads could air:

That could depend on the group's fundraising in the five weeks to Election Day. The $175,000 ad buy is more than a third of Minnesota for Marriage's $484,000 still in the bank as of Sept. 18, according to a state financial disclosure report. Leaders of Minnesota's Catholic diocese, allied with Minnesota for Marriage, last week sent a letter to 400,000 Catholic households asking for donations to Minnesota for Marriage so it could broadcast more commercials.

Watch the new ads, AFTER THE JUMP...

A recent Star-Tribune poll showed that 49% of voters said they would approve the measure, while 47% definitely oppose it. Four percent remain undecided. According to the paper, "Minnesota law requires any change to the Constitution to capture a majority of all ballots cast. That means a voter who skips the question is counted as a no vote."

Frank Schubert, Anti-Gay Mastermind Behind Prop 8 Campaign, Leaves Firm to Start New One

Frank Schubert the mastermind behind the false and misleading scaare ads and the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California, Question 1 in Maine, and other anti-gay initiatives, is leaving his firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs behind to start a new one:

Schubert, a conservative Catholic, said he would build a new national consulting practice focused on social issues such as protecting life, strengthening families, preserving traditional marriage and protecting religious liberties, along with pursuing conservative public policies that promote prosperity and liberty.

In an email to "friends" accompanying a press release announcing his decision, Schubert touts his anti-gay triumphs:

Until 2008, my entire career in public affairs consulting was devoted to assisting the business community deal with challenges it was facing, including successfully managing dozens of ballot initiative campaigns in California and many other states. As you know, in 2008 I took on the Proposition 8 campaign to restore marriage in California as the union of one man and one woman. I did so as a lifelong Catholic because it reflects my own beliefs about the issue as well as those of my faith. I was honored to have won the Prop 8 campaign, despite conventional wisdom. My colleagues in the political consulting profession found it to be the best-managed initiative campaign in the nation that year. In 2009, I also won a marriage fight in Maine, and in 2010 I helped remove three Iowa Supreme Court judges from office after they imposed same-sex marriage in that state.

In the email, Schubert suggests Schubert Flint Public Affairs has been blacklisted because of its association with the anti-gay campaigns:

The marriage issue obviously is a highly-controversial one, with strong passions on both sides. My involvement in marriage and other conservative issues has never resulted in any problems for my clients, and no client has ever stepped away from the firm due to my work on those issues. However, being involved in those issues has resulted in a reluctance by some in the general business community to hire my firm for new work. Additionally, the media focus on my marriage work has overshadowed the work of others in the firm who are accomplishing a lot of great things for our clients.
 
It has become clear to me over the past year or so that if I wanted to be in a position to successfully compete for future work with the business community I would need to step away from working on social conservative issues, regardless of what my faith teaches me about those issues.
 
At the same time, there is a tremendous need for accomplished consultants to work on issues like marriage, life, religious liberty, and similar subjects – all issues that I care deeply about.
 
I have carefully and prayerfully considered the pros and cons of the conflicting paths, and I have decided to focus my work on the issues I care about. Accordingly, I will leave Schubert Flint and have opened a new firm focused on conservative issues – Mission: Public Affairs, LLC.