Box Turtle Bulletin

As with everything else, Brian Brown can’t possibly recognize reality if it bit him on the ass.

In this case, he is redefining 742,000 as “millions.”

Eric Payne

We all knew Brian Browns in childhood. When told to share something, didn’t we all know that one kid whose idea of share was: “One for you, and one for me. One more for you, and two for me. One for you, and three for me…”?

Eric M

Give him a break. At least he had the wherewithal to change “Washington” to “Irish” before he hit send.

gar

The graciousness of the losing side in Ireland has actually been very inspirational. I’m hoping that their fears will soon be allayed and they’ll see that there is nothing to fear at all.

Neil

To Mr Brown, campaigning for your cause in a referendum is, â€œintense harassment of any group or individual who spoke out in opposition to the referendum.â€

Note the wording, “opposition to the referendum,” as if the referendum itself was some cunning contrivance of the marriage equality side and the self-styled traditionalists never wanted it.

Mr Brown has often demanded the issue of same sex marriage be put to a popular vote, but it appears his idea of the democratic process is that everyone who has a different opinion to him should just shut up. Only those who agree with him are permitted to endorse their side.

For all his bluster about repecting the will of the people, as his wording reveals, his respect is reserved if the popular will is against him. If Mr Brown disagrees with you, that’s democracy. If you disagree with him, that’s “intense harassment.” And if the referendum is carried in the affirmative, he’s opposed to the referendum.

Joseph Singer

Don’t be too hard on Bri. He’s really worried that his job of being mean to people who are for same sex marriage is going to lead to his organization folding and he won’t have his six figure income to pay for his pool and afternoon massages.

Bose

How pissed off is Mr. Brown that his Irish colleagues wanted no visible ties to him, funded not a single speaking tour for him there, and now wash their hands of his vitriolic style and substance?

He dismisses the 84% of the population who self-identify as Catholics (like he does) as “secularized,” apparently because the current-day Church finds itself incapable of drawing many of them to the pews.

It’s just got to burn that he is left stomping his feet, muttering under his breath, smoke billowing from his ears, while his erstwhile (maybe-never) friends offer poised, graceful, arguably Christ-like responses.

Leo88

The NOM/Brian Brown script.

If same sex marriage comes by way of court ruling it’s judicial activism.

If it comes through legislative votes and procedures, as it did in NY, the politician are all corrupt.

If it comes through popular vote in a historically Catholic nation it’s due to an abandonment of values and the “harassment” of the opposition.

What it is, is never a failure of his side to mount an honest and effective argument.

First it was mendacious nonsense about the ending of heterosexual marriage. When that was shown to be pretty thin gruel it became all about the children. They cooked up some phony social science in an attempt to “prove” their point. That didn’t go well. Then it became about the “ideal” environment for raising children which has never had any bearing on the issuance of marriage licenses. Now we’re in the “religious freedom”, think-of-the-bakers-and-florists stage.

Richard Everitt

Quite frankly supporters of marriage equality should be grateful to NOM. They have been pathetically incompetent, their aggressive fundraising soaked up money which might have gone to more effective organizations, and their Proposition 8 “victory” created a backlash which drove the Mormons out of the fight. Thanks to NOM, marriage equality throughout the U.S. will probably arrive five to ten years earlier than would otherwise have been the case. Personally some were good people following their church’s teachings, while others were scum, but none of them achieved much toward their stated goals. Proposition 8, for example, cost their side over a hundred million dollars – and survived less than five years. That is not a wise use of resources.

Richard Everitt

Quite frankly supporters of marriage equality should be grateful to NOM. They have been pathetically incompetent, their aggressive fundraising soaked up money which might have gone to more effective organizations, and their Proposition 8 â€œvictoryâ€ created a backlash which drove the Mormons out of the fight. Thanks to NOM, marriage equality throughout the U.S. will probably arrive five to ten years earlier than would otherwise have been the case. Personally some were good people following their churchs’ teachings, while others were scum, but none of them achieved much toward their stated goals. Proposition 8, for example, cost their side over a hundred million dollars â€“ and survived less than five years. That is not a wise use of resources.

Regan DuCasse

Brian Brown can be counted on to BAD MOUTH everyone and every process, no matter how legally or competently they went about their business.
Whether they were gay allies, or politically neutral.

The justices, the courts, the legislatures, the voters: when they actually took into account, the reading of the Constitution, and not the reading of the Bible as the standard of law and their decisions, Brown predictably said nasty and untrue things that would burn whatever bridges might be necessary regarding other issues.
He’s not a very bright man, is he?

Paul Douglas

I agree with Joseph. While I think Brown a bully and a blowhard as a well as a romanist convert (converts seem to always be the truest believers), he also sees a good $$$ gig that can’t be on life-support forever. He’s gotta be concerned about eventual ca$h flow so he’s demonstrating loyalty to the cause and doubling-down in zealotry. Good for his resume when the next Ã¼ber-conservative catholick-funded cause cÃ©lÃ¨bre comes along.

â€œItâ€™s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it.â€
Upton Sinclair

Nathaniel

The whole piece is worth a read. Brown is certainly not as gracious as his Irish counterparts, but I don’t think they expected to win. If they had, they would not have conceded until every vote had been counted. Brown, on the other hand, seems to think he speaks for God, and therefore, he is shocked when he fails.

What I found most interesting in his rant was that he actually stuck to his guns. One of his “I’m sorry we lost, but…” statements was the unsurprising “at least the people of Ireland got to vote” argument, aimed at SCOTUS’ impending decision. I’m sure he would feel bitter about losing the popular vote, but he has at least conceded that he got what he wanted simply by having gay rights up for popular vote.

Right after his enhanced estimate of the Irish “no” vote, Brown also took succor in the fact that marriage equality is only in “less than 10%” of the world’s nations. He also seem to take succor in the fact that most of those nations are “in the West,” as if the Middle Eastern and African nations that still threaten LGBT people with death or life imprisonment are real models for us to follow.

This reminds me, we are due a new marriage-equality-by-nation count. I’m not sure how Brown got to 18 unless he was counting the US, Mexico, the UK, and some other partially-there nations, and/or counting Scotland separately from the UK.

Nathaniel

actually, Wikipedia seems to have a pretty good entry on the matter. The country count is actually higher than I expected (21, if you count the US, the UK, and Mexico). Still not sure about Brown’s number, but it isn’t as far off as I thought.

Nathaniel

Sorry, meant to include this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage

Priya Lynn

To be part of the country count there needs to be marriage equality in the entire country so the count is 18.

Boo

Brian is just using ex-gay math.

Hunter

On the marriage count, I come up with 18 not counting Finland (effective 2016) or Slovenia (threats of referendum), nor the U.S. or Mexico. Four others recognize marriages performed elsewhere.

As for letting the people vote, under American law marriage to the person of one’s choice is a fundamental right, and so not subject to popular vote. (Yes, that means all those state constitutional amendments were never legitimate to start with.) Of course, Brown, like the rest of Anti-Gay, Inc., doesn’t really like the foundational principles of this country.

Hunter

Oops — just double checked — same-sex marriage goes into effect in Finland in 2017.

Richard Rush

Now that TLC may have a time-slot becoming available, let’s launch a real reality show: 18 Countries and Counting. (I’m not joshing.)

Ben in oakland

I sincerely hope you’re not joshing. After all you are a respectable gay man of a certain age, and should not have any interest at all in underage girls.

Nathaniel

Thanks, Hunter and PL. If we don’t count Ireland, Slovenia, or Finland, who haven’t actually had marriages start yet, or US, UK, and Mexico who all have one or more states that do not provide marriages, then the highest count I can find is 16 (remember that Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, does not provide marriage equality yet). It gets even lower if you drop countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, which have minor territories that are technically part of the kingdom, but which are not included under the laws that enacted marriage equality.

Spunky

Richard Rush wins today. That is absolutely hilarious.

David Holt