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National Organization for Marriage President Maggie Gallagher said her group is developing ads ‘to gear up for a national fight on the Defense of Marriage Act.’ (Photo by Dennis Cook/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: Chris Johnson COMMENTS
 
A controversial TV ad aired last week that warns of dire consequences of same-sex marriage is just the first round in a renewed media war triggered by recent gay rights advances.
The National Organization for Marriage aired its ad April 8 — the day after the Vermont Legislature legalized same-sex marriage and less than one week after the Iowa Supreme Court granted marriage rights to gay couples in its ruling.
Amid storm clouds and rumbling thunder, actors in the commercial say that supporters of same-sex marriage are advancing rights for gay couples in ways that hurt others. One woman says she’s a doctor who must choose between her faith and her profession; another says she’s helpless to stop Massachusetts public schools from teaching lessons condoning same-sex marriage; and one man says his New Jersey church group was punished for opposing gay nuptials.
The organization claims it spent $1.5 million on the commercial.
Maggie Gallagher, NOM’s president, told the Blade the ad was “more successful” than they “imagined or hoped.” She said the commercial has inspired a significant response from “small donors and the activist base.”
Gallagher said NOM released its commercial in response to the same-sex marriage developments in Vermont and Iowa.
“The main message point I saw being unleashed in the media is that this somehow — right after our great victories in California, Arizona and Florida — that this court decision and the state of Vermont meant the marriage fight was over,” she said. “And we thought it was important to get out and communicate that … Americans do care about the marriage issue and we’re not giving up on this.”
She said NOM is airing the ad in Iowa as well as in New England and Mid-Atlantic states where same-sex marriage has won approval or where bills to grant marriage rights to gay couples are pending.
And the group is planning more commercials. Gallagher said NOM has ads in development “to gear up for a national fight on the Defense of Marriage Act.” She said the future campaign would include e-mail, direct mail and web ads.
She said NOM has yet to determine when it would launch the new campaign.
“All I can say is we’re in the process of developing a series of ads and we haven’t finished developing them and we haven’t figured out the release date,” she said. “But, no, this is not a one shot. We’re doing this on an ongoing basis.”
NOM also has hired Schubert & Flint — the public relations firm responsible for the campaign in support of Proposition 8 — to push a campaign against same-sex marriage. The firm was behind an ad featuring San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in which he is shown excitedly and loudly declaring that same-sex marriage will happen “whether you like it or not.”
Gallagher said NOM hired Schubert & Flint because she was “really impressed with their work in California” and “they’re political pros.”
“I think I’m a pretty good messenger on marriage,” she said, “but if I’m going to hire a professional for help, I want to hire the best.”
The centerpiece of the National Organization for Marriage’s new $1.5
million ad campaign against same-sex marriage is a 60-second ad titled
‘A Gathering Storm.’ (Image courtesy of National Organization for
Marriage)
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The first NOM ad quickly drew national attention — Gallagher and HRC President Joe Solmonese appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” But LGBT activists had yet this week to begin broadcasting their own national commercials in favor of same-sex marriage to counter the ad, save for some lampoons of the video circulating online.
Brad Luna, HRC’s communications director, said his group has no plans to prepare a comparable campaign, although he didn’t rule out the possibility of the organization producing such ads in the future.
But the lack of a national response is causing heartburn for at least one state activist working closely on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality in New Jersey, where same-sex marriage legislation is pending and where the NOM ad is being broadcast, said it’s “valid criticism” that LGBT activists were not prepared for the response from social conservatives when same-sex marriage started becoming available in more states.
Luna said he didn’t think LGBT activists dropped the ball in not having a response prepared, though, because the debate on same-sex marriage has been ongoing for some time.
“I think there has pretty much been a national campaign going on in support of [same-sex] marriage for well over a decade,” he said. “There has been ...
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