It’s been a bad year for the National Organization for Marriage. And yet they do need money do need to convince their supporters the battle is not lost. Allow me to share with you their year-end message, and also to insert my own little commentary.
NOM says:
Marriage is winning . . .
. . . with a marriage amendment passed in North Carolina and another on its way in Indiana;
This is the year NOM could no longer say same-sex marriage is rejected every time it’s put before the voters. This is the year that leaves us with a 4-state winning streak.
. . . with outspoken support from each of the leading GOP Presidential candidates, and with a strong statement in the Republican Party platform;
This is the year a presidential candidate endorsed same-sex marriage. Wait — it’s the year the winning presidential candidate endorsed same-sex marriage
. . . with five state Senators in New York who lost their jobs after betraying their constituents by legalizing gay marriage, despite massive financial support from Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the gay marriage lobby;
This is the year NOM failed to repeal marriage equality in New York and failed to gain the seats needed to do it next year.
. . . with corporations put on notice by the massive support behind NOM’s Dump Starbucks campaign and the outpouring of encouragement on August 1st, Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day;
This is the year NOM got supporters to fast for a just cause, like Gandhi. Wait, sorry, it’s the year NOM persuaded them to pig out on saturated fat. It’s also the year Starbuck’s stock price was higher at the beginning of the year than at the end — good work, NOM! And it’s the year a vast number of corporations endorsed same-sex marriage (despite being “put on notice”).
. . . with new, powerful, and compelling research by scholars like Mark Regnerus at the University of Texas, whose ground-breaking “New Family Structures Study” showed the major differences between young adults raised by same-sex parents and those raised by a married mom and dad;
This is the year NOM exposed their own intellectual and scientific vacuity by telling the world its very best bestest evidence against same-sex parenting is a study that, as it turns out, did not report on same-sex parenting.
. . . and with the United States Supreme Court deciding to hear appeals of cases on both the Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.
This is the year a 16-year-old law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage creaked so loudly in the political and judicial windstorm that the Supreme Court realized it must decide whether to leave the law standing at all.
Each of NOM’s wins is actually a sad little loss. Aw. But they’re right about one thing, even if they don’t realize it: As of December, 2012, marriage is winning.