Maine court orders release of confidential documents

The meteoric rise of the National Organization for Marriage, from humble Princeton, N.J. beginnings ($500,000 in revenue in 2007) to the leading national anti-LGBT organization ($9 million in revenue in 2010), has confounded observers and pro-equality activists. How did NOM explode onto the scene so quickly, and why did it take over the mantle of anti-gay politics in the United States from more seasoned players? What has driven donations to NOM since 2007?

While there have been past hints about the reasons behind NOM’s growth spurt, a series of confidential internal documents unsealed Monday by a Maine court and first obtained by the Human Rights Campaign provides new information about how, in the aftermath of California’s Proposition 8, NOM strategically leveraged large secret donations to fund the anti-marriage movement across the country. 

Before the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign in California, few people had heard of NOM, which had been founded just the year before by Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher. Even after the campaign the NOM leadership worried that NOM wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved. “While some of our donors and close allies (and some of our adversaries, too) know, most of the world may never know the crucial role that NOM played in the Prop. 8 campaign,” said NOM’s confidential 2008-09 Board Update released on Monday.

Prop. 8 was NOM’s coming-out party, and the organization boasted of having raised nearly $3 million for the effort and becoming the largest single contributor to the campaign. NOM raised funds through NOM California PAC, a ballot-measure PAC registered in California that was required to disclose its donors. In fact, NOM California PAC raised close to $1.9 million.

In a pattern that would become significantly more apparent in the years after Prop. 8, NOM had little grassroots support but instead raised funds from a few wealthy donors: $550,000 from billionaire investor and Republican activist John Templeton and his wife; $275,000 from the Knights of Columbus; $125,000 from San Diego hotel magnate Doug Manchester; and about $180,000 from the Caster Family, owners of A-1 Self Storage, a California retail chain….

Buoyed by victory, NOM failed to realize that public opinion nationwide was undergoing a significant shift in favor of LGBT equality. Those who had supported the Prop. 8 campaign, including the Church of Latter-Day Saints, could not escape the fact that they had dedicated so many resources to promoting bigotry and denying loving couples a basic civil right. Public opinion quickly turned against the LDS and individuals who funded the campaign, not just in California but across the nation.

In response to the public outcry, NOM and its allies began a shift toward secrecy that would have significant implications for both NOM and the anti-LGBT movement going forward. NOM immediately filed suit in federal court to prevent disclosure of donors to its California PAC, the beginning of what would become years of self-described “donor protection litigation….”

Since 2008, NOM and its allies have unsuccessfully challenged disclosure laws in Washington, Maine, Minnesota, New York, and Rhode Island. Multiple federal judges and state campaign finance agencies have thrown out NOM-backed cases, concluding the reasons NOM cites for secrecy — that LGBT people are bullies and will harass NOM supporters — are bogus and without sufficient evidence.

In Maine in 2009, NOM tried to avoid a repeat of California by funding the campaign from undisclosed general funds rather than through a publicly disclosed PAC. But NOM’s new strategy of secrecy went a step too far, breaking state campaign finance laws and instigating an investigation. Ironically, it was NOM’s fight for secrecy in Maine that prompted Monday’s court-ordered release of confidential documents that help tell this story.

 

The above excerpts come from a March 30 story on HuffPost Gay Voices.

Click here for the rest…

 

READER COMMENTS

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 1:46 AM By 1abqdad
I tire from the manipulation of the constitution by liberal judges who have NO respect for the intentions of the founding fathers OR the language of the constitution. They create nonexistent “rights” (abortion), “protections (Errant “separation of church and state), and a host of other socialistic government take-overs. Their use of the IRS to attack the church is simply evil! We need to be VERY careful as to how we vote to STOP this trend!

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 5:10 AM By Canisius
The Gay Mafia at work…..

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 6:39 AM By MacDonald
I don’t see the problem. I you support Proposition 8, why not let it be known? People are already making public appearances at abortion centers, rallies against the HHS mandate, etc., and standing up for their convictions. Why not be public about this one item? [Perhaps I just need a third cup of coffee to understand this issue better…}

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 7:32 AM By Larry
And just exactly what crime is NOM guilty of? Are we to infer that pro-gay rights people would never stoop to the tactic of seeking or accepting donations from wealthy donors?

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 7:37 AM By JMJ
The only true gay people are those that are right with God and Jesus, not those that are homosexual by their own choice and to keep using the word gay in such a manner as this headline implies is a sin and an attack on those that have Gay in or part of their name. Mockery Of Marriage (MOM) of which same-sex ‘marriage truly is will be the final nail in the Cross of Jesus and He will stand aside and let His Father bring down His Wrath upon us very soon. +JMJ+

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 7:46 AM By Maria
Thanks to NOM, very little money was available to fight Planned Parenthood and its successful effort to defeat parental notification in California. End results: More ruined lives and more babies killed.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 7:52 AM By Patrick
Whether or not something is popular, does not make it right or wrong. As Roman Catholics, we have to stand on Christ’s Truth, and the Bible. Something immoral cannot be regarded as moral because of public opinion. Public opinion led to Our Lord being seized and taken to Calvary.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 9:54 AM By JLS
MacDonald, even more than a thirtieth cup of coffee, what you and we all need to understand this issue usually comes by direct experience rather than coffee table discussions. We have a pseudo-communist leadership in government. Why? Because the public largely prefers it that way. Why? Because they prefer lives of sin, which enslaves them to evil task masters. Why has this come about? Bad bishops.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 10:00 AM By Denise Riggio
To Maria: Our Lord has blessed this country and our Church with plenty of money to fight every evil we encounter…. To blame one organization devoting their lives to fight an intrinsic evil in our society such as homosexual unions for the lack of funds to fight abortion is an evil of another kind. Matthew 19:21 “..sell what you have, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven..” And to MacDonald: those who don’t understand why they choose to give in secret, next time you write something give us your whole name… stand up with your name for your comments here

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 10:00 AM By JLS
More directly to your question, MacDonald, the answer is that good forces opposing bad government are beginning to wise up and not let the govt tyrants in on their plans, their membership or their money trails. Why? Because all tyrant govts use this type of information to forcefully suppress their subjects. MacDonald, your United States of America is gone. Welcome to global govt, in a “nation” with a foreigner for its president, and a govt run by the “front man” known as Chicago, a political office of a cryptic cabal of kreeps without borders. You don’t believe this? Well, then why don’t the parts of your puzzle of America fit together any longer?

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 10:02 AM By Bud 
O’Bama as well as the gay agenda became good students of Saul Alinsky which actually bases it’s acceptance of anything wrong or right to coming up with attacks whether true or not, that given enough will eventually convince people to change their view with “trite” words or jingles like: BIGOTS, DISCRIMINATORY, HATE MONGERS etc. ad nauseam. The intimidation by the gays is very common whether disrupting or attacking peoples most sacred beliefs. Too many fall for it and should not be afraid of their bully tactics. Why was the state rep in Massachusetts and his “lover” thrown out bodily of the cathedral in Boston for standing up and kissing each other. Sometimes one must fight fire with fire and quit being a coward as well as believing their fake premises regarding their eligibility for hetero marriages.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 12:31 PM By THOMAS EDWARD MILES
Thank GOD we live in a free society, transparency is a wonderful gift! The lack of the above is one of the main reasons for the scandals in the church today! It is lack of transparency on the far right and the far left that these folks meet at the Backdoor of the church!! Hilter and the SS HATED TRANSPARENCY!! If one makes a donation to a political cause, PLEASE, don’t be a church mouse and hide in your hole in the wall, the world is full of POLITICAL WHIMPS!!!!!

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 1:21 PM By Thomas B.
If I read this article correctly, it makes NOM look like the bad guys. Good grief! I hardly think that the statement: “NOM failed to realize that public opinion nationwide was undergoing a significant shift in favor of LGBT equality. Those who had supported the Prop. 8 campaign, including the Church of Latter-Day Saints, could not escape the fact that they had dedicated so many resources to promoting bigotry and denying loving couples a basic civil right. Public opinion quickly turned against the LDS and individuals who funded the campaign, not just in California but across the nation” is true. It appears that it is an anti-NOM/pro-LGBT article out to deceive regular heterosexual citizens which by the latest statistics heterosexuals still rank right up there in the 98% majority of our nation! Promoting bigotry and denying loving couples a basic civil right? Is it bigotry to stand behind God’s laws? Is it compassionate to let evil homosexuallity to flourish where LGBTr’s have insidiously forced their evil agendas into our public school system to destroy our childrens morals? Is it compassionate to turn our cheeks and look the other-way to let them do their gross behavior publicly in their LGBT pride parades and bars or privately in their residences and sway the naive public for sympathy that their evil behavior is all-right unless one wants to be dubbed as a “hater”? The answers are NO and NO! Hater of sin, yes we hate of sin, but we don’t hate the sinners! We can’t back down otherwise what little morals that is left in our society will further decay, and society will go to heck in a hand-basket. With the decay of morals comes disrespect of God and humanity which then leads to crime. Most of us christian heterosexuals with morals can see the crime connection, but who in the goverment dares stand up and goes against the homosexual PACs? God gives these LGBTr’s the liberty to pursue their uncleanly life-styles, the choice is their’s to suffer in hell.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 1:53 PM By Paul
It has long been the aim of the Gay Stormtroopers to bully and intimidate the public into accepting it’s vile agenda. They seek out businesses and individuals who have donated significant amounts of money to pro-family organizations, and then publicize them and arrange for boycotts and demonstrations in an attempt to coerce submission or drive them out of business. Make no mistake about this, my fellow Christians – this battle against the forces of darkness must be fought on the streets of America. We can no longer afford the luxury of allowing others to fight our battles for us. If the opposition takes control of the streets, they will soon be controlling the nation. They must be confronted and overcome The issue of the Supreme Court must also be dealt with, as they have been consistently handing down decisions that are in and of themselves violations of God’s natural law as well as the will of the people When the will of the majority is flaunted, the end result is tyranny. The Supreme Court has become an extension of the Marxist plan to impose itself upon this great nation. We can no longer speak of it as a Supreme Court. It is, rather, a Supreme Soviet – a Moloch – that refuses to uphold the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the most vulnerable and innocent of human beings. It is an assault on a par with Herod’s satanic order to murder the Christ Child along with every other infant they could lay their hand upon The coming battle calls for enormous sacrifices, determination, and skillful organization on our part. Pray to God that we are found worthy of the task

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 2:12 PM By Mark from PA
JMJ, you speak of “those that are homosexual by their own choice.” You need to know that people do not choose their sexual orientation. It is something that is inborn. It is not a sin to have a homosexual orientation. There is nothing wrong with being gay. It is not a bad word or a misused word. One of the several meanings of the word refers to a group of people. All people are children of God.

Posted Monday, April 02, 2012 2:50 PM By Mark from PA
This is a very interesting article. I noted that NOM has little grassroots support and is funded by a few wealthy donors. I was aware of this. I am troubled by the amount of money given to this organization by the Knights of Columbus. With so many people suffering in our bad economy, that money surely could have been put to better use. Why not have that money go towards feeding hungry children or helping support our struggling Catholic schools?