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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 22nd, 2011
The newly elected Republican supermajority in New Hampshire is interested in the economy and jobs and taxes. And House Republican Leader D.J. Bettencourt has stated that warring over marriage is not one of the party’s immediate priorities.
Well, to National Organization for Marriage, this makes Bettencourt an enemy to be destroyed. So they fired up their attack machine. (Boston.com)
Bettencourt said the National Organization for Marriage sent a direct mailer to his district in Salem saying he doesn’t support traditional family values. He said the mailer was the result of his announcement last week that the House Republican agenda did not include repealing gay marriage.
But it may have backfired. Rather than resulting in marches on his office by outraged citizens waving pitchforks and demanding a witch trial over Teh Gheys getting married, this act or aggression simply pissed off Bettencourt (and probably quite a few other Republicans, as well). So he used it against them.
In a letter to his fellow legislators, he said that NOM’s move proves that marriage is “controversial” and would be a distraction, so it should be put off for another year.
“This assault on our agenda has the potential to take important focus and energy away from our focus on the budget,” Bettencourt wrote O’Brien. “Therefore, it is my belief that the same sex marriage repeal must be retained in the Judiciary Committee this year so that our full and undivided attention is focused on New Hampshire’s outstanding financial issues.”
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Eddie89
January 22nd, 2011
The only problem the Republicans in NH have with NOM is a matter of timing.
They want to wait until 2012 to begin their anti-gay onslaught and NOM wants them to do it now!
BlackDog
January 22nd, 2011
I get the feeling they’ve figured out that in NH at least, there’s not much in it for them to be anti-gay and that’s the big question “What’s in it for them?” If there’s nothing in it for them, they see it as the non-issue that it really is and always was.
Of course, the professional anti-gays disagree.
But that’s the funny thing about not actually being in government, little things like the economy and state budgets not NOM’s problem and they DON’T care about that.
I suspect Maggie G.couldn’t run a lemonade stand on her own though, so it sorta figures.
Edwin
January 22nd, 2011
It’s about time soneone told NOM that they aren’t worth listening to. Hope the rest of the states tell them the same thing.
John
January 23rd, 2011
At least some Republicans seem to be getting the message that the American people are more concerned with the economy and jobs and, just maybe, getting tired of the same-sex marriage issue. As they say, all politics is local, and right now people are more focused on keeping their jobs and homes or having to deal with having lost their jobs and/or homes.
Regan DuCasse
January 23rd, 2011
Yeah, because when it’s all said and done, a declining economy puts marriages at risk, and it’s not like NOM’s agenda can do anything about THAT.
Whether gay people get married, things will be the same.
Whether gay people don’t, things will be the same.
So NOM’s reason for being is actually quite non existent. And their demands utterly selfish beyond reasonable people’s interest.
RWG
January 23rd, 2011
Does NOM ever do anything positive for anybody? Or is it always and only anti-gay campaigns? I mean, even the Catholic Church, with its hate agenda, stops to feed a hungry person once in a while.
Throbert McGee
January 23rd, 2011
NOM is almost entirely an ad hoc effort against same-sex marriage — so, no, they don’t involve themselves in trying to address the high divorce rate among heterosexuals, or anything like that.
Whether they do anything positive is a matter of political perspective, I guess.
For example, if you believe that laws establishing same-sex marriage are Good Legislation, but ENDA is Bad Legislation, then NOM’s “Storm Clouds” ad campaign was overall negative (it was mainly against same-sex marriage), but it had one positive side insofar as it highlighted the unintended consequences of overly broad anti-discrimination laws. (The ad didn’t mention ENDA specifically, but it did bring up the case of that Christian photographer who was sued for declining to accept a wedding-photos job from a lesbian couple. Arguably, that was an example of a well-intended but overreaching law that stifled the discretion of a small business owner.)
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