Ghost of marriage campaign past still haunts Maine legal system

Same-sex marriage opponents gather at a National Organization for Marriage rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2010. Fibonacco Blue via Flickr/Creative Commons

Same-sex marriage opponents gather at a National Organization for Marriage rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2010. Fibonacci Blue via Flickr/Creative Commons

The National Organization for Marriage is a hate group that has ignored Maine law for more than six years.

In 2009, the group spent millions of dollars in the state to take away marriage from loving, committed couples.

The money helped to overturn a new state law, passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, that allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry.

NOM set out to deny a fundamental, human connection — to repeal love — and they broke the law to do it.

Today, after a groundbreaking marriage campaign in 2012 when Maine became the first state in the country to pass marriage at the ballot box, the U.S. Supreme Court has settled the issue once and for all.

There is not “gay” marriage or same-sex marriage. There is marriage.

NOM has lost. Its one purpose to exist gone. But that hasn’t stopped it from pursuing its hateful agenda, which includes defying Maine law and hiding the donors who funded its deceitful campaign in Maine.

With the issue lost, NOM fights on to make sure that the people who helped to deny thousands of Maine couples marriage are shielded from scrutiny; to undermine marriage by passing legislation that allows discrimination and by exporting its antigay dogma to other countries.

Earlier this week, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that NOM must disclose its donors from the 2009 campaign.

For six years, the group has illegally shielded its donors, denying Maine voters the opportunity to know who paid to influence their elections.

NOM ran a campaign based on deception and fear, and it hid its donors. The group says donors were afraid to have their names made public for fear of backlash.

Backlash?

Like being punished for whom they fall in love with? Like being told their relationships and family are lesser? Like being accused of terrible things because you are living as the person you were born to be? Like being fired or denied housing or beaten and bullied?

That’s the backlash that NOM empowers every day against the LGBT community.

Attorney General Janet Mills, in a written statement released after the ruling, cited a string a legal defeats for NOM that have upheld Maine’s financial disclosure laws.

“NOM has fought for almost six years to skirt the law and to shield the names of the out of state donors who bank-rolled their election efforts. The time has come for them to finally comply with state law like everyone else. The people of Maine have a right to know who is paying to influence our elections.”

I gladly admit my bias on this case. I worked on the original legislation in 2009, on the campaign to defend the law and on the campaign in 2012 to make things right and pass marriage at the ballot box.

As The Advocate reported this week, defeated in the United States, NOM has taken its hate onto the road, where it’s working to influence public policy in other parts of the world.

Brian Brown, NOM’s leader, went to Russia and used his hateful rhetoric that’s now rejected in the U.S. to help deny adoption rights to loving, same-sex families.

And this year, NOM Chairman John Eastman said that he hopes that a Ugandan law that would put people in prison for life for “aggravated homosexuality” comes back, even though that country’s court system struck it down.

The group is also pressuring Republican presidential candidates to swim against history and public opinion, and sign a pledge to take marriage away from millions of families.

NOM’s disregard for Maine law telegraphs its intentions. It will continue to ignore the law, and continue to spew its antigay messages here in the United States and anywhere it can find an audience, including other countries where gay and transgender people are under great threat.

NOM has skirted Maine’s law for six years, and it would be understandable for people to lose interest in holding them accountable and simply move on. After all, marriage is the law of the land.

There’s a maxim in the law that justice delayed is the same as justice denied. Justice in this case has been denied for too long.

For our friends, family and neighbors who were attacked by NOM, their ads and their campaigns, we must continue to push for full disclosure, as required by the law.

And we must hold NOM accountable for its misdeeds. Otherwise, they will continue to inflict suffering on gay and transgender people here in the United States and around the world.

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.