Maggie Gallagher's National Organization for Marriage recently launched a set of TV ads, purporting to be real stories about real people,
Today the National Organization for Marriage launched a $1.5 million ad campaign to protect marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation. The centerpiece of the new ad campaign is the 60-second TV spot "A Gathering Storm," bringing viewers face to face with the growing religious liberty threat posed by same-sex marriage.
The only thing is, the spot is totally false.
“What’s next for the National Organization for Marriage? Will they hire legendary infomercial pitchman Ron Popeil to hawk their phony agenda?” said Human Rights Campaign Spokesman Brad Luna. “This ad is full of outrageous falsehoods—and they don’t even come out of the mouths of real people.”
It looks like NOM is actually run by just 3 people - Gallagher, Brian S. Brown, and Robert P. George - and has a 5-member board of directors.
Sources
- Jack Turner at Jack & Jill Politics: A Storm Is Gathering - Fake People Tell Fake Stories About The Threat Of Gay Marriage
- Boing Boing repost
- Pharyngula
- LezGetReal
- Rod Drehrer at Belief.net
- Good As You -- Counter video
- Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish
- The Stranger (on the debate between Joe Solomanese and Maggie Gallagher)
- The Nihilist
- Box Turtle Bulletin: Delightfully Crazy Dingbat Insane Ookie Spookie Ad from National Organization for Marriage
- Box Turtle Bulletin: No California Doctors Were Harmed In The Making Of This Commercial
- Box Turtle Bulletin: Who is Damon Owens?
- Political Animal
- Feministe
- Bilirico
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jason Linkins
- Pam's House Blend: Fearmongering
- Pam's House Blend: NOM's Hired Guns for Hate
From HRC:
The general argument of the ad is that the push for marriage equality isn’t just about rights for same-sex couples, it’s about imposing contrary values on people of faith. The examples they cite in the ad are:
(1) A California doctor who must choose between her faith and her job
(2) A member of New Jersey church group which is punished by the state because they can’t support same-sex marriage
(3) A Massachusetts parent who stands by helpless while the state teaches her son that gay marriage is okay
The facts indicate that (1) refers to the Benitez decision in California, determining that a doctor cannot violate California anti-discrimination law by refusing to treat a lesbian based on religious belief, (2) refers to the Ocean Grove, New Jersey Methodist pavilion that was open to the general public for events but refused access for civil union ceremonies (and was fined by the state for doing so) and (3) refers to the Parker decision in Massachusetts, where parents unsuccessfully sought to end public school discussions of family diversity, including of same-sex couples.
All three examples involve religious people who enter the public sphere, but don’t want to abide by the general non-discriminatory rules everyone else does. Both (1) and (2) are really about state laws against sexual orientation discrimination, rather than specifically about marriage. And (3) is about two pairs of religious parents trying to impose their beliefs on all children in public schools.
New website, Endthelies.org
National Organization for Marriage is playing a TV ad in response to IA and VT’s victories for same-sex marriage. The deceptive ad claims same-sex marriage takes away other people’s freedoms. It wrongly lists doctors, churches, and parents as “victims” of same-sex marriage.
Audition tapes -- actors reciting the "true stories"
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