Dear Maggie Gallagher, President and Brian Brown, Exec. Director, NOM:
I admit, this is something that I normally would not do, seeing as I find that your values are completely abhorrent to me.
That's right, I am a long-time married heterosexual with children, and I find your stance akin to those bigots who protested for miscegenation during the Loving v. Virginia battle that finally decreed that in this country, we had no right to deny marriage rights to people because they were not of the same race. You, Ms. Gallagher and Mr. Brown, are the bigots that fight to hold on to notions that should have been put away long ago to deny human beings equal rights because of their sexuality.
You see, my sexuality is quite secure and I feel no threat to it by homosexuality. I hold no fear for the strength of my marriage by allowing gays and lesbians to marry. My ability to procreate has not been adversely affected even with my fellow San Francisco residents having the right to marry. My job is not--nor my spouse's job, nor my children's education--in danger from us being around committed homosexuals. I'm curious if you could even outline how any of that could be threatened, because I've taken a good look through your website and I can't find one single way that you've been able to show a threat...unless of course, your marriage is simply not as strong as mine and having others commit would suddenly inspire you or your spouse to up and leave. Personally, I find the ease that divorces are available far more destructive to the institution of marriage. You know, if you looked at the number of marriages of all the GOP presidential candidates in 2008, you would have more divorces than candidates...add Newt Gingrich in there, and whaddya know? You'd have divorces in the double digits. From the "Party of Family Values?" Now, that's a threat.
But I digress. I just have a few pointers to you if you want to be taken credibly, instead of laughed off the national stage, as Rachel Maddow has done so well above.
1) Admit this is a violation of your faith. Be honest. I have yet to meet one opponent of marriage equality that when you scratch the surface, doesn't boil down to an issue of faith. In fact, your own website admits as such:
NOM seeks to (a) educate the public about the consequences of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, especially for children and people of faith, and (b) organize a political response to the Tim Gill coalition, supporting pro-marriage legislators and exposing key proponents of same-sex marriage.
Because here's the thing: if it's a matter of your faith, you lose. Your faith cannot dictate civil rights, any more than it could when the southern states invoked Scripture to justify slavery during the Civil War. So please, be honest and let's just be done with this hate and bigotry.
2) If you're going to put out an ad to frighten citizens about the ooga-booga scary notion that marriage equality will somehow bring down civilization as we know it, it might actually have more credibility if you could find an actual doctor to claim her job is somehow threatened, rather than using a really, really bad actor. Better hope they haven't heard of Norway, Denmark or The Netherlands, where marriage equality has not resulted in dogs and cats living together nor mass hysteria.
And for crying out loud, don't let your audition tapes get out. You may have pulled them for copyright infringement from YouTube, but we still know they're out there and we know that it proves how fraudulent your fearmongering is when you have to resort to Z-list actors to "act" it out. Were Chuck Norris and Scott Eckern not available?
3) And really, this is just silly. If you're going to launch a new campaign called "Two Million For Marriage" (2M4M) you might want to check who owns that domain first, you boneheads.
Yours in complete and utter scorn,
Nicole Belle
