Connect with us

Is NOM Lying In How They’re Trying To Defend Their Racially Divisive Tactics?

Published

on

Brian Brown, president of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, penned an op-ed in the uber-conservative Washington Times today, and decried as “false” the head of the Log Cabin Republicans’ charge that NOM is engaging in racially-divisive tactics.

What’s curious is that not just the R. Clarke Cooper, head of the Log Cabin Republicans, but almost the entire nation, who has denounced NOM’s tactics. Why pick on one person or one small organization? Could it be because it’s an LGBT group? It makes your work so much easier when you frame an argument as if it’s just “the gays” who disagree with you.

“NOM did not create the divide between blacks and homosexual-marriage advocates, and standing for marriage is not standing for division or discrimination,” Brown writes. “Nor is it patronizing for media leaders to treat the heroic stand of the black church against homosexual marriage as a product of hateful politics. Reaching out to blacks and Hispanics who share our view is something conservatives do and should do more of. NOM will continue to reach out to these communities.”

As is his usual strategy, Brown merely tweaks facts and ignores the ones he does’t like. It’s not that NOM is “reaching out” to minority groups, it’s that NOM’s executive board approved a tactic and strategy of pitting minority groups against each other, in an effort as some have said, to create a “race war.”

“The current round of media attacks on NOM for a single line in a 3-year-old document reflects the basic tactic of the political left: Use government to push a new moral norm, and when Americans with more traditional values object, attack them mercilessly, then blame conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) for being “divisive.” Their end game? Silencing the voices of millions of Americans,” Brown adds.

No, again, Brian, you’re wrong.

The media is not attacking NOM for “a single line in a 3-year-old document.” And how is this “using government”?

Since you won’t play fair, since you won’t disclose the truth, I will.

Here are just a few passages the media, and most of America, is denouncing and lambasting NOM for, direct from the unsealed court documents the Human Rights Campaign found and published:

 

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots…”

“Expose Obama as a social radical. Develop side issues to weaken pro-gay marriage political leaders and parties and develop an activist hase of socially conservative voters. Raise such issues as pornography, protection of children, and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at the federal level.”

“The Latino vote in America is a key swing vote, and will be so even more so in the future, both because of demographic growth and inherent uncertainty: Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values? We must interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity – a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation.”

“We aim to identify young Latino and Latina leaders, especially artists, actors, musicians, athletes, writers and other celebrities willing to stand for marriage, regardless of national boundaries. …Here’s our insight: The number of “glamorous” people willing to buck the powerful forces to speak for marriage may be small in any one country. But by searching for these leaders across national boundaries we will assemble a community of next generation Latino leaders that Hispanics and other next generation elites in this country can aspire to be like. (As “ethnic rebels” such spokespeople will also have an appeal across racial lines, especially to young urbans in America.)”

For those who wish to do their own digging, here are the complete NOM unsealed court documents — have a look.

The question remains: Is NOM lying in how they’re choosing to defend their racially divisive tactics?

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Trump’s Wild 24 Hour Truth Social Frenzy

Published

on

Over a single 24-hour stretch, from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump unleashed 48 Truth Social posts, from debunked election fraud conspiracy theories to posts including him among the “three Greatest Presidents,” to praise of what a great grandfather he is.

“Trump is an incredible grandfather,” wrote @TONYxTWO on the social media site X, which was screenshotted and posted by Trump to his Truth Social page at 7:04 AM Wednesday, along with a TikTok video of Trump with his grandchildren.

“Vote for grandpa,” one of his grandchildren told campaign rallygoers.

“That’s Barron,” Trump also said in the video, holding an infant in an old clip. “He’s strong, he’s smart, he’s tough, he’s vicious, he’s violent — all of the ingredients you need.”

READ MORE: ‘Republicans Have to Lose’: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice

In another post, at 6:34 AM Wednesday, Trump screenshot a social media user who wrote: “PASS THE SAVE ACT.!!!” That post included a video with footage from 1996, lambasting now-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In it, Schumer was advocating for legislation that was an apparent effort to stop fraud related to illegal immigration.

Just one minute earlier, Trump shared a video promoting debunked election fraud claims, including saying that 2.7 million “Trump votes” appeared to have been deleted in the 2020 election.

BBC News debunked that claim in November 2020.

At 6:05 AM, Trump posted a screenshot of a social media user’s baseless election fraud claim: Michigan had over 100 percent turnout. BBC News also debunked that claim in November 2020.

At 10:58 PM on Tuesday, Trump posted a link to a right-wing website with an article titled, “Key political voice in Georgia urges state to take over Fulton County elections after FBI raid.”

One minute earlier, he wrote in a different post: “Crooked Elections cannot be allowed in the U.S.A. President DJT.”

That post also included a screenshot of a post by a social media user who wrote: “Dan Bongino had John Solomon on his show today and Solomon made an interesting prediction: That Trump will soon unveil evidence that foreign powers meddled in the 2020 election, which will result in John Thune ultimately caving on the filibuster and the Save America act will get passed.”

READ MORE: ‘Insulting’: Fox News Panel Implodes as Host Clashes With Liberal Guest Over Voter ID

It also included a video alleging that China sent fake drivers’ licenses to help Joe Biden.

At 7:43 PM, Trump posted a video of himself, speaking from the Oval Office, honoring the fifth anniversary of the passing of right-wing pundit Rush Limbaugh.

Trump described him as a “great man, a great conservative,” who was a friend of his. Trump went on to say that Limbaugh endorsed Trump just after his 2015 presidential run announcement from Trump Tower, where he had famously said that Mexico was not sending their best.

In six separate posts on Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted graphs that appeared to show Republican primary polling in Indiana, and how his endorsements would push a candidate from low numbers into the top position. One chart claimed that a Trump endorsement would put a candidate polling at 12 percent all the way to 54 percent.

Minutes earlier, Trump twice posted: “The Great Economist, Stephen Moore: ‘In the past Century, the three Greatest Presidents were Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, and Donald J. Trump!'”

Trump posted twelve photos of himself with the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had used Jackson’s death as an opportunity to argue that he is not a racist.

Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, Trump posted a screenshot of a post by Fox News host Mark Levin, who wrote: “Now, finally stop the b — — trying to link POTUS to Epstein. The Woke Reich grifters, congressional Democrat hacks, and the media thugs continue to libel POTUS, from Russia to Epstein. We’ve a country to save from these reprobates and others.”

READ MORE: Trump Administration Hit With Lawsuit for Removing Pride Flag

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

Continue Reading

News

Trump Administration Hit With Lawsuit for Removing Pride Flag

Published

on

The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit accusing it of breaking federal law by taking down the LGBTQ+ Pride flag at New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and Secretary Doug Burgum, as well as the National Park Service and Acting Director Jessica Bowron, are named in the lawsuit filed by attorneys for the Gilbert Baker Foundation and others. Gilbert Baker is the artist who created the rainbow Pride flag.

“In the lawsuit,” The New York Times reported, “the Gilbert Baker Foundation argued that the original Pride flag fell under one of the allowed exceptions: to provide historical context at national monuments. This is the exception that allows Confederate flags to be flown at properties managed by the Park Service, including Gettysburg National Military Park.”

READ MORE: ‘Republicans Have to Lose’: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice

“This was no careless mistake,” the lawsuit reads, according to a screenshot posted by New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane-Newman. “The government has not removed other historical flags at other national monuments, most notably Confederate flags.”

The suit alleges that the “assault on Stonewall is the latest example in a long line of efforts by the Trump Administration to target the LGBTQ+ community for discrimination and opprobrium.”

“In February 2025, for instance, the administration removed the word ‘transgender’ from prominent sections of the Stonewall monument’s website, as part of its wider campaign to demean and erase the transgender community,” it states.

“The Trump Administration has deleted numerous NPS websites discussing LGBTQ+ history,” it continues, “fired at least one federal employee for displaying a pride flag in his office; banned the use of pronouns in email signatures; renamed a John Lewis-class replenishment oiler named after Harvey Milk, a pioneering gay rights leader who served as a Navy officer and one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States.”

READ MORE: ‘Insulting’: Fox News Panel Implodes as Host Clashes With Liberal Guest Over Voter ID

It also cites what it calls “a particularly absurd example,” in which images of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay — the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb — were flagged for deletion, apparently because the images included the word “Gay.”

The lawsuit alleges a “pattern of systemic targeting of the LGBTQ+ community—combined with the starkly disparate treatment of the Pride flag,” which it claims “demonstrates that the decision to alter the Stonewall monument was not just a mistake. It was based on an impermissible animus.”

Numerous New York elected leaders at all levels, including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, denounced the administration’s removal of the flag.

The removal became a national flashpoint, drawing hundreds of locals to protest and prompting elected leaders to vow to raise it again.

Activists and officials gathered for multiple demonstrations at the Stonewall National Monument, where they raised a new Pride flag — an act that the Trump administration condemned as a “political stunt.”

READ MORE: Massie Warns of Growing GOP ‘Defections’

 

Image via Reuters 

Continue Reading

News

Massie Warns of Growing GOP ‘Defections’

Published

on

A prominent House Republican who successfully advanced bipartisan legislation to release the Epstein files is predicting there will be more GOP “defections” once the primaries are over.

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told Politico that because Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority is so thin, “on any given day, I would just need one or two of my own co-conspirators to get something done” that goes against the Trump administration’s agenda.

He said that “what’s happening is that the retirement caucus is growing and primary days are coming up and passing. Once we get past March, April and May, which contain a large portion of their Republican primaries, I think you’re going to see more defections.”

Massie added that “quietly and privately, people are telling me they agree with me.”

In a surprising revelation, Massie said that House Republicans “are being told every week to stand down, bite their tongue, sit on their hands, do what they’re told, be part of the team and put their brain in neutral.”

READ MORE: ‘Insulting’: Fox News Panel Implodes as Host Clashes With Liberal Guest Over Voter ID

Massie also offered several other pointed remarks.

He noted that after President Trump called him a “moron” at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month, pastors were “not impressed and I don’t think anybody was impressed by his performance at the prayer breakfast. It was completely political.”

The Kentucky Republican further directed strong criticism toward Attorney General Pam Bondi after being the only member of his party to, as Politico reported, “spar” with her at last week’s contentious congressional hearing.

“When the attorney general is reduced to a stack of pre-prepared insults to deliver, and when the DOJ is responding to my every tweet with additional unredactions, I don’t think I’m going to change what I’m doing just yet,” he said.

Massie described Bondi as looking “weak and frustrated” at the hearing “when she started talking about the Dow Jones, which has literally nothing to do with her job.”

“I thought that looked bad,” he said. He also pointed to her “stack of insults that were pre-prepared — in politics you might call it oppo research — and you could see her shuffling through them to try and find which one matched the person who was trying to ask her a question at the time. She found my card like right at the end, as you can see she was looking for it.”

READ MORE: ‘Republicans Have to Lose’: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.