Minnesota for Marriage taps NOM’s Christopher Plante in amendment push at fair

Update: Plante told the Providence Journal that he will not be joining NOM’s Minnesota operations.

The National Organization for Marriage, a Washington, D.C.–based group that opposes rights for same-sex couples, has solicited the help of Christopher Plante in its Minnesota operations in the run-up to a 2012 vote that would ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota’s constitution. Plante is the executive director of the National Organization for Marriage Rhode Island. Plante opposes marriage rights for same-sex couples including civil unions and even the right for same-sex couples to make funeral arrangements together. 

The Providence Journal notes that Plante came to Minnesota to assist NOM and the Minnesota for Marriage coalition at the Minnesota State Fair and has no plans to work for the M4M coalition.

According to the Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Plante joined up with the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition, which is made up of three groups: the Minnesota Catholic Conference, NOM and the Minnesota Family Council, during the state fair.

Over the weekend, Plante accused opponents of the amendment of being intolerant against groups that oppose rights for LGBT people. He told CBS that he heard rumors that activists may try to glitter the Minnesota for Marriage booth at the Minnesota State Fair.

“We understood it might happen,” he said. “Quite honestly, it says more about the other side. We are here exercising our right and that says more about the tolerance from the other side.”

Recent statements by Plante were ruled “Pants on Fire” false by Politifact. Earlier this year during a debate at the Rhode Island General Assembly on whether to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, Plante said, “The people of Rhode Island don’t want same-sex marriage.”

Politifact said that that simply wasn’t true.

We disagree. Of course it’s a statistical claim. When you say “the people of Rhode Island don’t want same-sex marriage” you’re saying that more than 50 percent would oppose such legislation.

The most recent polls from Brown, RI-GLAD and even NOM-RI — Plante’s organization — show the opposite.

Not only did the trends in the NOM-RI and RI-GLAD polls show opposition to same-sex marriage evaporating, the Brown and RI-GLAD polls showed that the public wants gay couples to have the right to marry, even if you assume that every voter who didn’t express an opinion was opposed to gay marriage.

Plante’s assertion isn’t just false. It’s ridiculous. We rate it Pants On Fire!

Plante isn’t a stranger to making incendiary comments about the LGBT community. Blogger Jeremy Hooper noted that Plante said that same-sex couples treat their children like “accessories.” He claimed that same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy. And he said that if same-sex marriage was legalized, it would be forced into schools.

Plante, in his work for NOM in Rhode Island, has opposed strengthening hate crimes laws.

“NOM (National Organization for Marriage) Rhode Island is pleased that the governor chose to veto the hate crimes legislation that was before him this year on the grounds that hate crime legislation like this has been used in other places, such as Vermont and Connecticut, to further the homosexual marriage agenda,” he said in 2010.

Plante has also opposed civil unions.

“We’re against civil unions simply because where they have been enacted, civil unions have been used to force the courts to judicially change the meaning of marriage. What we don’t stand against is evaluating the law on a case-by-case basis,” he said in an interview with the Warwick Beacon.

Plante even opposes funeral rights for same-sex couples. In 2009, then-Gov. Don Carcieri, a Republican, vetoed legislation that would have granted rights for same-sex couples to make end-of-life decisions. The bill passed the Rhode Island Assembly almost unanimously, but Plante urged lawmakers not to override the veto.

“NOM – Rhode Island respectfully requests that you vote to sustain the Governor’s veto both to avoid creating unnecessary law and to not move Rhode Island closer to recognizing homosexual-marriage,” Plante wrote. Despite [homosexual-marriage activists] claims to the contrary, these bills serve simply as ‘Trojan Horses’ for homosexual-marriage.”

Ignoring Plante, lawmakers voted to override the veto.