National Organization For Marriage: Mighty Army Is An Army Of Very Few

The National Organization For Marriage (NOM), the leading anti-marriage equality organization in the United States, has always been a mystery. Maggie Gallagher, her name synonymous with NOM, herself has always been a mystery too, given her status as a leading “traditional marriage” supporter who has a very-hidden husband, who admits to having had a child out of wedlock, and has another child rumored to be gay himself. Now, with the defection of NOM’s grassroots and online messaging strategist, Louis Marinelli, we’re getting some insight into the mighty army that almost single-handedly has been able to — at least temporarily — keep equality at bay in several key battlegrounds. And we’re learning what we’ve been led to believe is a mighty army is an army of about a half-dozen people.

Just days after his defection, a courageous act in which he renounced the beliefs held by his bosses at the National Organization For Marriage and embraced the concept of full civil marriage equality for same-gender couples, Marinelli writes, “NOM is a small group of devoutly religious Catholics supported by a couple of undisclosed sources,” adding, “NOM is essentially made up of Brian Brown, it’s President, [sic] Maggie Gallagher, the CEO, a handful of other Board members (who are scattered across the country involved in other matters), a couple of advisors to Mr. Brown and a small and largely incompetent office staff.”

Read: “NOM’s DOMA Ad Is Misleading And False. Here’s Why.“

So, it’s Maggie, Brian, and a half-dozen or so worker bees. Board members rarely do any heavy lifting.

Which puts into contention even more the claim Gallagher made a few years ago that she has gay people working for her. She was clear: they are gay and there was more than one.

Marinelli goes on to state that, “Their social media management isn’t operated by NOM – they’re not big enough for that nor do they understand social media!,” and says that, “There is no grassroots opposition.”

Wow. Let me repeat that: “There is no grassroots opposition.”

Which brings us to Marinelli’s other big reveal: NOM’s hidden funding.

We know that NOM, in state after state, has gone to court, refusing to release its list of donors, and in state after state they have lost.

Marinelli writes, “I, like you have seen on multiple occasions how fundraisers, which are matched dollar for dollar by an undisclosed source pulling the strings from behind the shadows, have met their goals. I shared the suspicion many did when gaps of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations were suddenly closed in the final hours running up to the deadline.”

Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin earlier this year suggested, “NOM is simply a shill, a front for a singular entity who wishes to secretly engage in politics.”

So, the National Organization For Marriage is made up of a few players, with major, secret funding. It’s been confirmed from an insider, who tells us, “That is all that is standing between you and the freedom to marry.”

Any questions?

 

[image Maggie Gallagher standing (almost) alone: lost in miami]