Campaign board rejects NOM’s efforts to shield donors in gay marriage battle

Okay, let’s see those donor lists. Print baby, print!

Praise Jebus, God hates a disembodied voice, Amen.

Yippers!!!

This is good news!

Yes, lists please…

Now…..!!

Very good news! Transparency in elections is paramount.

During the campaign for Proposition 8, ProtectMarriage and NOM threatened supporters of the No effort with publishing the names of donors if they were not to donate the same in kind to them.

“Make a donation of a like amount to ProtectMarriage.com which will help us correct this error,” reads the letter. “Were you to elect not to donate comparably, it would be a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional marriage. … The names of any companies and organizations that choose not to donate in like manner to ProtectMarriage.com but have given to Equality California will be published.”

And now they seek their own anonymity for those who do donate to them? It seems incredibly hypocritical. Then again, hypocrisy seems to be their modus operandi.

Sounds illegal.

After shining a light on the Vultures lets take a look at the ticks and leaches that infest its body .. I’m sure it’s much deeper then some “Good ol’ church going Gawd fearin’ Christian nut balls..

Great news–now the regressives won’t be able to hide under the rock of anonymity. Go ahead, fundies: give your money to try preventing equality under the law. We’ll know who you are. My guess is that most of you won’t have the courage to put your money where your mealy mouths are. Most of these religious bullies are cowards, as will be demonstrated during the next 15 months or so until the election. They’ll make a lot of noise about being “persecuted for their beliefs,” and meanwhile they’ll hide behind lies, half-truths and innuendo. Get over yourselves, regressives–you’ve already lost. It’s only a matter of time before full equality under the law is the right of every citizen.

I have to quit reading this stuff, it makes me think I’m seeing daylight at the end of this long dark tunnel we’ve been in for way too many years.

Release the lists! To the ramparts of the first amendment we go!

Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN

Good call. Full disclosure is the way to go.

They keep losing these rulings, yet the disclosures never come. What gives?? They should need to disclose or be banned from running ads at pain of arrest and prosecution if they disobey.

I’m w(h)ack and I’m proud. NOM is postmodern! Who knew.

HG,

See, something we can both agree on. :-)

Everything that is not total acceptance and full legal equality for one’s LGBT fellow citizens is anti-LGBT hate speech. NOM’s allegations that those who support the end of sexual orientation apartheid are violent to NOM’s donors are fraudulent. NOM makes those fraudulent accusation further to demonize gay people. That dirty propaganda tactic stimulates many of NOM’s non-institutional donors to donate more (the notion being, the dangerous gays will stop at nothing, so give all the money you can to keep them from hurting you!). Then the secondary benefit of the secrecy is that the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church can launder money through NOM, as those groups are all financially in cahoots. Go ahead, editors of The Minnesota Independent – make NOM go on record as to whether it supports or opposes legislation that would lift the statutes of limitations on prosecutions of child rape. My guess is that NOM stands right with the Catholic Church in opposition to such lifting of statutes of limitations.

At last the white sheets will come off of wealthy out-of-state religious zealots who want to keep MN in the dark ages through their bigoted ads hurling hatred towards families instead of burning crosses

come on NOM, closet ain’t no fun for anyone!

September 2010, National Organization for Marriage Inequality did not stop one of their staff members, Louis Marinelli, from tweeting the names, phone numbers and employers of everyone who had ever donated to Wisconsin Congressman Russ Feingold’s campaign, since Mr Feingold voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (I call it the Discriminatory Offensive Marriage Attack). Marinelli tweeted “”We will publish the public info available through FEC so everyone knows who you are. We will encourage them to boycott your business. If you give $ to pols in DC who are tearing down the cultural foundations of USA by voting liberal-progressive, you are just as guilty”

He then tweeted the name of a teacher and the school where she used to work (she donated to Mr Feingold three years earlier and had not taught in the school in 10 years). Marinelli on behalf of NOM tweeted Arrowhead High School teacher Sara ____ has been donating $$ to Russ Feingold’s re-election campaign. Who is teaching your children? (I blanked out the teacher’s last name)
He tweeted these threats
Marjorie ____, Executive Director of the ____ LGBT Community is supporting Feingold with $$.
Seen the commercials for the Law Offices of James G. Sokolove, the personal injury atty? Well, he donated at least $1,000 to Feingold
“Jodie ___, co-founder of CODE PINK donated $200 to Senator Feingold’s re-election campaign”
“WI State Rep Fred ___donated $1,000 to Russell Feingold’s re-election bid. (608) 266-XXXX Call him. Tell him how you feel.”

I monitored him for six hours and took each of his tweets and I retweeted them to the FBI, Twitter and Mr Feingold until Marinelli stopped. Marinelli six weeks later claimed to be for marriage equality in his scam to steal marriage equality money from LGBT Americans.

Maggie Gallagher & Brian Brown are lying. They allowed Louis Marimelli to threaten the lives of donors to Russ Feingold, whose names are available on the Federal Election Commission site. Maybe they are afraid that others will do what they did.

Attention bigots, you are expected to play ball by the rules. You shall receive your due scrutiny, and you are expected to pay the maximum penalties, under the law, for violating these rules. You deserve scrutiny because your goal is pure, sexist, homophobic discrimination, and I hate you for it.

Make DAMN sure these religious yo yo’s are held accountable and their list of donors is published! Inquiring minds NEEEED to know!

Why is NOM still talking when they are a known hate group, side by side with the KKK?

Just like the KKK, NOM has free speech already. But just like there is consequences for calling a black guy the N word, there are consequences for supporting bigotry. If NOM was so right, why are they always trying to hide their information? Makes you think doesn’t it, especially in relation to a HATE group.

“[R]unning a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage. And the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate, or to take part in the legislative process.” – US Supreme Court Justice Scalia

So who’s your daddy NOM? Does he live in Italy and wear fancy gowns and hats?

It’s one thing to pass a directive it’s another thing to get the hate groups to play ball!! We all need to MAKE SURE that The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board doesn’t drag its feet on this issue! They’ve just made the directive now WE NEED TO HOLD THEM TO IT!!!

These hate groups have tried to rewrite the rules as they promote these ugly laws that embrace discrimination and promote violence towards the GLBT with the stigma of a Constitutional amendment – while hiding of course. What cowards.

they still haven’t released the records in MAINE…and that was 2-3yrs ago….NOM has been fighting it since then……hmmm,wonder whom they are trying to protect? RELEASE THE NAMES!

NOM and the MN Family Council are branches of the Republican Party. Their only goal is to get likely Republican voters to the polls. Their funding sources reflect this – hence the desire to keep them secret.

With the exception of California, every state where NOM has been active has made the same ruling concerning campaign donors; NOM simply ignores court orders/laws demanding the names be revealed.

MN will be no different. NOM and Maggie Gallagher believe they, simply, do not have to bend to man’s authority.

Speaking personally, I know that once the names of these bigots are released I’ll be taking steps to encourage a boycott of any business that is found to be contributing to this hate legislation.

Religious bigotry doesn’t fly too well in the metro area, and any gay-hating, Bible-pounding zealot who thinks they can spread their filth in our community might be dismayed to find that their patrons have ready alternatives.

Don’t let NOM do to taxpayers in Minnesota what they did to us in Maine: tie up our courts with their frivolous lawsuits and appeals.

Despite crystal clear state election regulations, upper court rulings against them and lost appeals, NOM still refuses to comply with OUR Maine election laws. We’ve wasted 3 years of Maine state court and legal resources as a result of their refusal to comply. Our taxes pay for their frivolous and evasive actions.

NOM is an out-of-state parasite that feeds on bigotry. Send them a message:

If you won’t play our rules, get out of our state!

Eric, …. Exactly the only violence they will incur is one on their pocket books and wallets, the more deadly of kind for the likes of them!

Prichard has a great quote of if my name gets published I wouldn’t donate to NOM, well if you can’t donate to a cause with everyone else knowing you’re donating to that cause then you don’t deserve to donate. Anyone can back an organization secretly because it won’t affect their perceived character to the masses, but that’s stupid because I could go around saying I’m such a good person fighting for equality and still be secretly backing people like NOM or a different hate group like the KKK. I know that comparing NOM to the KKK is not exactly fair, but as a gay person I’ve been compared to thieves and murderers by NOM, so I think I get to compare them to just about whatever I want.

And Seattle http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/06/30/group-tries-again-to-shield-names-in-gay-rights-fight/

Hoods OFF in Minnesota Prichard!!!

I always liked hide-and-seek as a kid, but this is more than merely ridiculous. NOM needs to be held to the same standards as everyone else: disclose the donors. Freedom of speech does not give one the right to hide in the shadows; exercise of freedom of speech requires that one be willing to publicly back the message.

Also, I am incredibly heartened to see so many comments here opposing NOM’s attempts at obbfuscation. Thank you all.

So the guy is in effect saying he’s afraid to be associated with his own organization? Well, even he isn’t convinced they’re on the right side, then. Righteousness and good NEVER have to hide their faces or who they are.

Marriage equality in Minnesota now!

Matters of a State Constitution, above all others, should not be advocated from the shadows, nor by anyone who is not a citizen of the State in question.

Outside money, outside speech, and anonymous speech are each direct attacks on our sovereignty as a State.

The campaign board’s decision is but a single step in protecting our sovereignty. Sad to say, I expect no additional protections.

Maybe we should write more sovereignty into our constitution.

Yes wendy I love it HOODS OFF!

totally love it! :)

As usual Republican’s want to operate in secret. How are they ever going to start the revolution they love to talk about if they are such wusses?

I’ll donate to NOM and if you tough guys want to come to my house you are more than welcome. And I thought your lefty messiah OBOZO called for a more gentle tone in politics. You are nothing but violent socialist haters and worse than those you accuse.

While I am glad for this ruling, I remain concerned that given NOM’s actions in other states, we will never know who the donors are until long after the 2012 elections, if ever.

Does anyone know what options Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has should NOM, MFC, the Catholic Conference and other such groups flout this ruling? I am hoping that severe fines, prison time and the ability to extradite Minnesota lawbreakers from other states are among these options.

JR, dont hold your breath, and cut down on the WND and Bryan Fischer fictional kool-aid brother. I’ll make a donation in your name to Minnesotans for All Families.

JR

I mean this with all sincerity…..WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?????????????

[...] Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, argued that if donors are disclosed it “would have a significant chilling effect on free speech. [...]

@JR No one will be at your house, I wouldn’t let you be alone in a room with my kids though if you were contributing to a hate crime organization. and I wont be patronizing any of the corporations that are doing so as well.

Its your choice to be aligned with the KKK, but don’t expect to be able to wear the hood! For that is exactly what is happening when you contribute to the NOM.

[...] Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, argued that if donors are disclosed it “would have a significant chilling effect on free speech. [...]

[...] Here’s more on what’s happening in the wake of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s finding that the National Organization for Marriage must disclose its donors. The anti-gay group has been arguing, farcically, that it doesn’t have to  because its donors would be harassed, maybe even threatened by the scary gay people.  (This–their ingrained victim complex– is why the NOM show is both a tragedy and comedy.)  A coalition of progressive groups aren’t buying it. From Birkey: [...]

[...] election disclosure laws concerning money it gave to anti-gay marriage candidates.  According to The Minnesota Independent, "NOM has attempted to shield its donors from disclosure requirements in many states including [...]

[...] Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled that NOM must abide by state disclosure laws after a federal court rejected NOM's appeal in [...]

[...] Minnesota, the state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board rejected NOM’s request to keep its donors secret, following a court ruling finding the [...]