In 2010, Brian Brown, president of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, gave a deposition and admitted that in 2009, his organization spent $8 million fighting same-sex marriage. Brown was asked, “Roughly how much money did NOM spend in 2009?”
Q. Okay. Let’s talk about 2009 and, first, let’s just talk about NOM’s efforts nationally. Roughly how much money did NOM spend in 2009?
A. I think seven and a half million dollars.
Q. I’m looking for round numbers, so that’s fine. It may be a little more, it may be a little less?
A. Yeah, or eight. Actually I think it was more like eight, sorry.
Q. So NOM spent roughly eight million dollars during 2009?
A. (Deponent nods affirmatively.)
Fred Karger, the gay Republican former presidential candidate, is also the founder of Rights Equal Rights (formerly Californians Against Hate), and published on their website the 2010 deposition. The above quote appear on what is labeled page 178. There’s also this, on page 235:
Q. And roughly how much did NOM receive in contributions in 2009?
A. Eight million dollars, possibly a little bit more. I need to go back and look but around eight million dollars.
Q. Would the amount of contributions roughly match the amount that NOM spent in 2009?
A. Yes, roughly.
Karger notes that he “personally delivered new information to the Maine Ethics Commission which has been investigating the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) for nearly three years.”
Karger’s original complaint was filed against NOM, the most vociferous anti-LGBT organization in the country, on August 24, 2009 accusing NOM of money laundering in Maine’s 2009 election to stop marriage equality from becoming law in that state.
Karger also penned an op-ed that ran last week in the Advocate, “Fred Karger Says It’s Time For NOM to Go Down,” which details some of NOM’s state-by-state activities. Ksrger offers this background:
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has funded and led every anti-gay marriage action and election in this country since it was formed five years ago by the Mormon and Catholic Churches. It was setup to serve as their front group in order to qualify and pass California’s Proposition 8. Prop 8 stripped away California’s gay marriage law and wrote discrimination into the state Constitution for the very first time.
NOM has morphed into a finely-tuned, effective $12 to $15 million per year bullying operation that has gone to war against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans in more than 20 states. NOM also goes after anyone and everyone who gets in its way on the ground, at the ballot box and in the courts.
Karger adds:
Let’s not forget that NOM got six of the nine Republican Presidential candidates to sign its virulently ant-gay marriage pledge last summer. Mitt Romney was one of those signers. It calls for the passage of a federal Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in all 50 states. It also requires whichever signer wins to appoint a presidential commission to investigate, individuals who harass donors who fight for traditional marriage.
Perhaps Mitt will get asked about same-sex marriage during tomorrow’s presidential debate.
And let’s not forget, from 2003 to 2010, Chick-Fil-A spent $5 million supporting groups that try to end same-sex marriage.
There are a lot more than just these few examples. Fighting loving same-sex couples is a multi-million dollar business that generously rewards those whose efforts violate the standards of human decency.
Image: One of NOM’s fundraising tactics, via Facebook