Debunking the Claims of the National Organization for Marriage, Point By Point

by Michael Jones · 2010-08-31 16:24:00 UTC
Topics:

Kudos to Matt Baume, the activist behind Stop8.org (and the journalist who helped bust open the story about Target's $150,000 donation to an anti-gay candidate in Minnesota). Baume's latest (no pun intended) target? The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and their deceptively malicious recent advertisement slamming Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling earlier this month that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

In a point-by-point takedown of NOM, Baume goes through and provides in-depth rebuttals as to why the arguments made by NOM in their latest advertisement are false and/or misleading.

Among the claims made by NOM in the aftermath of Judge Walker's ruling is that "A gay San Francisco Federal Judge has ruled that marriage between one man and one woman is discriminatory and unconstitutional."

But the facts? As Baume points out, NOM's labeling of Judge Walker as a gay San Francisco judge is misleading, because Walker has never confirmed his sexual orientation publicly. Besides, there's no reason to believe that a judge's sexual orientation (or gender, race, age, etc.) would ever influence her/his ruling in a case.

But beyond that, NOM's larger point is completely incorrect.

"There nothing in the ruling about heterosexual marriages being discriminatory. All he ruled is that banning gay couples from marrying is discriminatory. Heterosexual marriages? Fine. Banning gays from marrying? Discrimination. There's a difference," Baume says.

NOM continues in their ad by saying that Judge Walker's ruling "is crazy and scary."

Baume is right there to indicate what is truly crazy and scary.

"You know what is scary and crazy? If your wife is dying in the hospital, they'll try and stop you from seeing her. If your husband is from another country, they'll try and have him deported. And if you're raising foster kids, they'll try to take them away," Baume says. "These are things that happen every day to gay couples, and they're not just crazy and scary, they're inhumane and terrifying."

Amen. Check out the rest of this awesome takedown below. It should prove once again that when it comes to the National Organization for Marriage, the only trick they have up their sleeve is manipulation of the facts, and a campaign based on fear.


Photo credit: YouTube

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Canyon Ridge Christian Church Still Stands By Anti-Gay Politics in Uganda
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (16)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.