Carrie Prejean And David Tyree Were NOM’s ‘Glamorous Non-Cognitive Elite’

Beauty queen Carrie Prejean and football star David Tyree were merely two pawns in Maggie Gallagher‘s palms, fulfilling a corporate strategy and directive to use “artists, athletes, writers, beauty queens and other glamorous non-cognitive elites” to advance their message that same-sex marriage is wrong. Yes, the scandal of NOM‘s playbook — revealed this week by HRC in previously sealed court documents — includes the revelations that NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, was prepared to start a race war in order to “protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.”

READ: NOM’s Confidential Court Documents Reveal Worldwide Corporate Strategy Of Divisive Race-Baiting

Carrie Prejean and David Tyree certainly fit the bill — and NOM’s description:

Hollywood with its cultural biases is far bigger than we can hope to be. We recognize this. But we also recognize the opportunity – the disproportionate potential impact of proactively seeking to gather and connect a community of artists, athletes, writers, beauty queens and other glamorous non-cognitive elites across national boundaries. (This is applying the Witherspoon and IAV model to non-intellectual elites.)

Ouch.

Pretty but stupid is pretty much what NOM was calling for, and in both cases, received.

Prejean, who came to “power” after, ironically, after telling gay blogger Perez Hilton that marriage should be between a man and a woman, only to lose her Miss California USA crown for (alleged) breaches of contract. But her comments and loss were Maggie Gallagher and NOM’s gain.

We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.

Of course, Prejean was wrong on all counts. The vast majority of Americans — especially in April, 2009 — do not “live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite.”

And so was born — albeit for a very short time — the Maggie Gallagher/NOM partnership with the glamorous non-cognitive elite beauty queen Carrie Prejean. A partnership that Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown milked dry, making money off her non-cognitiveness. Until, as GLAAD noted yesterday, “NOM later distanced itself  from her.”

More from GLAAD:

These documents, unsealed as a part of a court case NOM is fighting in Maine also reveal that the anti-LGBT group has been actively interested in – as they say – “fanning the hostility” (p.12) between the LGBT community and the black community, and also revealed that NOM has been attempting to turn Latino families against marriage equality by framing the LGBT movement as part of – in their words – “assimilation.”

NOM is the most well-represented group on GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project (#glaadCAP), with five associated figures (Brian Brown, Maggie Gallagher, Christopher Plante, Jennifer Roback Morse, Robert George) among those anti-LGBT activists with profiles. And now we know that they refer to their own supporters as “non-intellectual.”

Of course, then there was football star David Tyree, the former Giants football star, an African-American who said that just because a minority has an agenda, they shouldn’t be allowed to change marriage. The irony and hypocrisy were mind-blowing, then, and now. And his rendition of the NOM glamorous non-cognitive elite theme fit like a glove.

In June of 2011, in a statement recorded for the National Organization for Marriage, Tyree stated that if New York passed a same-sex marriage equality law, “this will be the beginning of our country’s sliding toward, you know, it’s a strong word, but anarchy.”

As The New Civil Rights Movement reported at the time,

When CNN host Kyra Phillips asked Tyree to explain, he stated, “I’m saying that in the sense of, basically, morality. If there’s no basis of moral fiber, in a community, and we continually slip away, from that, I believe, that will essentially lead to lawlessness. Does that mean there will be riots running around? I don’t think, that’s not necessarily what I’m referring to…”

At which point Phillips interrupts Tyree and explains, “But that’s what anarchy means. It’s social and political disorder, due to the absence of a government, or control by the government.”

Tyree, attempting to defend himself, states, “I think if we look up the word ‘anarchy,’ there’s a few definitions, but I don’t really want to focus on that.”

Again, Phillips challenges Tyree, asking him for any evidence that “gay marriage has any negative impact on other marriages or the sanctity of marriage, or culture, or children? Where is your evidence?”

Tyree just says “I can’t necessarily get into statistics. That’s not my voice.”

Phillips challenges Tyree on the issue of diversity, “as an African-American male, can you appreciate that?”

Stumbling, Tyree tells Kyra Phillips that same-sex marriage is “unnatural,” and says “the original intent of a marriage is to procreate.”

Later that month, just like Joe The Plumber, Tyree told the media he didn’t want his kids to think gay people were normal. Gallagher must have been especially proud that day.

Hopefully, Gallagher — now all but entirely divorced from her brainchild, NOM — is no longer proud. Sadly, the chances of that seem slim.

Image of Carrie Prejean via Wikimedia