The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) annual “March for Marriage” has once again failed to resonate, with this year's event attracting less than 50 people. According to Twitter user Beth Ethier, the exact number was 47 “including babies.”
Attendance at the event has plummeted since the inaugural March in 2013. That year, somewhere in the region of 10,000 attended although estimates ranged from 2,000 to 15,000 depending on who was doing the counting. In 2014, around 2,000 people attended while 6,000 are thought to have taken part in 2015 as the event took place the weekend before oral arguments in Obergfell. However, last year that number dropped to 250.
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NOM head Brian Brown said that the low turnout was caused by scheduling and permit problems.
Right Wing Watch reports:
Fifteen minutes before the event was scheduled to begin, about 20 adults were milling around an empty stage while several children worked to unfurl large red and blue banners to carry during the march. One passerby wondered whether they were going to a kite festival. Gradually, a few more participants arrived, including five men wearing the signature capes of the group Tradition, Family and Property and carrying a “Honk for Traditional Marriage” sign.
While in previous years, the March for Marriage's numbers have been increased by various church-sponsored buses and a large contingent bused in by New York state Sen. Ruben Diaz, this year there appeared to be no large groups.
Brown told the crowd not to be discouraged by their small numbers, comparing their cause to that of abolitionists in the 18th and early 19th century.
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“We are on the side of truth,” he said. “We are on the side of true human rights, we are on the side of true civil rights. And in every fight for civil rights, it took a creative minority who were willing to stand up and speak truth to power no matter what the cost. And you know what? There may not be thousands of us here today. It doesn't matter. There were only a few that stood with William Wilberforce when he stood up and said ‘no' to the slave trade in England. He was mocked, he was derided, he was laughed at. We remember him as a hero now, because ultimately his life's work was successful, but it wasn't successful in his own lifetime.”
“Every year, we're going to be here whether there's thousands or hundreds or tens” of people, he said.
Brown told the crowd that he would continue working to ban same-sex marriage and would be ready to advance a state same-sex marriage ban to get a case before the Supreme Court at the right time.
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“The court has been wrong and wrong time and time again,” he said. “And guess what? The court has overturned its own rulings that were wrong. It's going to take another justice, maybe two. It may take 20 years, maybe more.”
Brown also noted that he has had far more success in recent years spreading his homophobic message outside of the U.S. He spoke about the recent World Congress of Families conference in Hungary and travels to Romania and Taiwan, where he met with activists working to overturn a court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
Watch NOM's rallying call for the march below.
