Source: Zroberts, Flickr

Minnesota for Marriage, a coalition working to convince Minnesotans to vote for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, has hit the media saying that their group are “underdogs” in the marriage amendment battle and that they will be greatly outspent.

But according to public records, members of the pro-amendment coalition, including the Minnesota Family Council and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, have greatly outspent LGBT groups in the five years of lobbying for the amendment.

Minnesota for Marriage claims fundraising disadvantage
Each member of the coalition supporting the amendment has claimed underdog status in recent months.

Chuck Darrell, communications director for Minnesota for Marriage, told the St. Cloud Times earlier this month that coalition members “expect to be outspent.”

Darrell elaborated in an August interview with Pastor Brad Brandon on KKMS.

“One of the problems we see is that the other side through Hollywood connections and everything else under the sun are going to raise a ton of money. I don’t think we can outraise them,” Darrell said. ”It’s absolutely important that people get involved because the only way to counter the money that is going to be spent on the other side.”

John Helmberger, CEO of the Minnesota Family Council and chair of Minnesota for Marriage sent an email to supporters several weeks ago warning that “Hollywood” and “centers of popular culture” would be outspending the pro-amendment campaign.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC), another member of the Minnesota for Marriage coalition, also warned that they would be outspent.

“Will the campaign be easy? No. We will be vastly outspent and there will be many cultural forces working against us,” the group wrote on its blog. ”They will try to make us think that we are swimming against the tide of history. They will call us names for defending the important institution of marriage. But, we must stand together.”

Amendment supporters spent three times as much through PACs
In the previous five years, groups pushing for the marriage amendment spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect sympathetic legislators. 

According to documents filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Minnesota for Marriage spent $341,928 from its political action committee (PAC) promoting the ballot measure in Minnesota since 2005.

OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, spent $95,574 from its PAC on LGBT issues, including opposition to the amendment since 2005. Project 515, which has lobbied to change the 515 Minnesota laws that discriminate against same-sex couples spent $17,850 from its PAC since they were founded in 2008.

The pro-LGBT groups together spent just $115,424, or about one-third of what Minnesota for Marriage spent.

Minnesota for Marriage groups spent $1.12 million on lobbying
All sides of the debate have spent big money lobbying the legislature as well. While the campaign finance board’s lobbying summaries don’t list the amounts of money spent on specific issues, they do provide annual estimates of lobbying expenditures.

Outfront spent $496,658 since 2005 on a range of issues including anti-bullying laws and domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples, but also in opposition to the amendment. In addition, Project 515 lobbied for bills that would equalize Minnesota laws for same-sex couples including end of life matters and hospital visitation. Together the two group spent a sizable amount of money: $616,658.

Since 2005, the Minnesota Family Council has spent $194,000 on lobbying. The group has lobbied heavily in favor of the amendment but also has lobbied in opposition to anti-bullying laws, gambling, medical marijuana, Sunday alcohol sales and abortion rights.

Minnesota for Marriage, an organization exclusively dedicated to the marriage amendment, spent $296,411. Focus on the Family came to Minnesota to lobby for the amendment as well and spent $32,538.

Between the three groups, spending was $522,949. When you add in the lobbying of the Minnesota Catholic Conference ($600,000 since 2005), that number rises to $1,122,949.

Catholic Church and National Organization for Marriage flexed ad muscle
In the advertising game, Minnesota for Marriage and the Catholic church blew LGBT groups out of the water.

During the 2010 elections, the D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage in conjunction with the Minnesota Family Council spent $709,000 on ads urging Minnesotans to support gubernatorial candidates that support the amendment banning same-sex marriage. And the Catholic Church in Minnesota spent $1.6 million on a DVD campaign just before the 2010 election that urged Catholic voters to support candidates that oppose same-sex marriage.

That 2010 ad total, $2.3 million, out-paced LGBT equality groups who spent $0 on ad campaigns during the 2010 election.

All told, the pro-amendment forces have spent $3.7 million over the last 5 years according to publicly available records. Those forces that oppose the amendment spent $740,000.

More than 550 people of faith gathered at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church Monday to learn more about organizing against a faith-based opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

Organizers for the meeting say people of faith have been sidelined in past efforts to defeat such amendments, with campaigns opting to keep religion out of the discussion. But in Minnesota’s debate, they plan to have religious leaders front and center.

Javen Swanson, a member of Outfront Minnesota’s Faith Organizing Workgroup, said they initially had planned for a smaller group.

“When we started planning the faith organizing kickoff about six weeks ago, we thought it would be great if we could get 250 people there,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “As it turns out, around 550 people showed up and packed the sanctuary.”

Attendees heard from groups that are part of the anti-amendment coalition, including Jewish Community Action.

“The campaign isn’t just asking people of faith to help with phone banks and canvassing efforts,” Swanson said. “Rather, people of faith are being asked to figure out how they want to be involved, and to develop organizing strategies that make sense for their own communities.”

In other states, Swanson said, pro-equality campaigns did not organize people of faith effectively.

“In other states that have faced an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative, people of faith have often been kept on the sidelines, or they’ve been asked to get involved just a few months before election day,” said Swanson, “In Minnesota, people of faith have been an important part of the anti-amendment campaign from the very beginning.”

Minnesota for Marriage, the ballot campaign supporting the ban on marriage for same-sex couples, is composed exclusively of religious groups and has relied on making a faith-based case for their position.

Phillip Lowe attended the event and was impressed that the movement for marriage equality is taking a strong interest in people of faith.

“This is the first time in a campaign anywhere that they are attempting to tip the scale on the religion thing, that the anti-gay religious right alone does not have the only say in the debate,” he said. “I think we will see the left and the right side of religions engaged in this campaign. And I think in this campaign, we need them all, including those who are not religious.”

“What was very encouraging to me, was that while the religious right is trying get this passed because of how their religion defines things, the people of faith organizing [event] was about respecting differences, but at the same time coming together to work together for that one common goal.”

Swanson noted that the event did not go off without a hitch.

“The energy in the room was electric,” he said. “About a minute before we were scheduled to begin the meeting, the whole block lost power and the church went dark. We started the meeting without lights or mics and spent the next 45 minutes straining to see and hear the proceedings.”

But the power failure helped bring everyone together. “If anything, the power failure nurtured the sense of community in the room as we all waited together for light to break through the darkness. By the time the power was restored, folks were eager to get up and get organized.”

The opinion pages of the Star Tribune have become embroiled in a war of words over efforts to “cure” gays and lesbians of their homosexuality.

Last week, the Rev. James Livingston, a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis penned a column titled “Some people can make the gay go away” asserting that being gay is a “weakness” that can sometimes be cured through therapy and prayer. On Thursday, OutFront Minnesota offered a rebuttal: “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are not broken. We are not in need of repair.”

Livingston, who heads a support group for men and women with same-sex attractions, penned his column in response to a previous editorial by Ron Bates, “Growing up Catholic and gay in Minnesota.”

“For years and years, I would prostrate myself on the floor and ask God to change me. Maybe if I just pray more, fast more, do more ‘works of charity,’ the male attraction will go away,” wrote Bates. “After more than 30 years of trying to ‘burn’ the evil out of me, I finally came out at age fifty four.”

Livingston responded that non-heterosexual orientations are a product of dysfunctional upbringings:

The plain truth is that people with same-sex attractions experience them differently.

For some, those desires are deeply rooted and long-lasting, while others experience them as symptoms of something else: loneliness, lack of confidence or frustrated childhood bonding with same-sex parents or peers, just to begin the list.

In other words, some people really do find developmental and environmental roots to their same-sex attractions. And yes, some find release from them through therapy or through the mysterious grace of a spiritual awakening.

Livingston said that gay marriage should never be legalized.

“Traditional marriage is rooted in this ancient if inconvenient truth, and it can’t be scolded or legislated away by one misguided generation. History is not and never will be on the side of gay marriage,” Livingston wrote. “Minnesota citizens, you can support traditional marriage and be a friend to persons with same-sex attractions. It’s not an “either/or” issue.”

Rebecca Waggoner, anti-violence program director for OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, and the Rev. Oby Ballinger of OutFront’s Minnesota People of Faith Roundtable, disagreed with Livingston‘s take on the issue.

“Rev. Livingston is wrong: true friendship means valuing friends for who they are,” they wrote. “We cannot call ourselves friends to LGBT people if we work to deny their love, erase their identities, and exclude them from marriage.”

“In reality, many people of faith affirm the inherent human dignity of all people, including those with LGBT identities,” they continued. “They recognize that, instead of asking how we can change a child’s identity, we should ask how we can change our world so children will be supported as they are and be free to make the best choices for their own lives as they become adults.”

Livingston’s words also brought condemnation in the paper’s letters to the editor.

“Livingston’s commentary is an example of a problematic type of ‘soft bigotry’ that many exhibit toward the LGBT community,” wrote Patrick Finnegan of Minneapolis. “Although he purports to show compassion to people with same-sex attraction, it is predicated on the assumption that such attraction is a dysfunction to be suppressed and corrected.”

Chad O’Leary of St. Paul shared his story in the paper’s letters section:

Being told that I could “pray it away” set me up for what I could least afford: failure. I considered myself a failure in the eyes of God and, at the age of 14, sat with a bottle of aspirin by my bed considering ending it all.

After seven years of youth ministry within the Catholic Church, I know firsthand that there are teens on the brink of ending it all, who see themselves as disgusting anomalies for wanting to love someone of the same sex and build a family with that person. I think that perpetuating this self-loathing is the epitome of sin.

Ben Smith of Minneapolis wondered why Livingston’s column was ever published in the first place.

“While everyone is entitled to their opinion, the Star Tribune does not have to publish every illogical, ill-conceived, bigoted and fact-free bit of insane drivel that comes its way, whether it’s from a religious figure or not,” Smith wrote. “From its assertion that much same-sex attraction comes from ‘loneliness or lack of confidence’ to its ridiculous claim that gay identity is being forced onto young people who are then imprisoned by it, Livingston’s article is filled with nonsense with zero basis in reality.”

On Tuesday, two groups called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar to sign on as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) noting that she is the only Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has not taken that step. Klobuchar has indicated her support for the bill in the past, after some pressure, but OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, and Freedom to Marry, a national group working toward marriage equality, urged her to sign her name to the bill.

“[O]ur US Senator Amy Klobuchar is the only Democrat on the committee who has not signed on as a co-sponsor. The majority of Minnesotans support the freedom to marry. And now it’s time for Senator Klobuchar to take our voices to Washington and call for an end to marriage discrimination,” OutFront Minnesota wrote in a message to members on Tuesday. “She needs to hear from you now. Will you urge Senator Klobuchar to co-sponsor this crucial legislation?”

Minnesota’s Sen. Al Franken was an early sponsor of the bill, the Respect for Marriage Act, which will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. Backed by President Barack Obama, it would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

The House version of the bill is sponsored by Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum.

Klobuchar faced pressure in March to state whether or not she would vote for the bill. Her office indicated she would after earlier stating she would not take a position on the bill.

Business leaders, Democrats and LGBT groups are unified in one aspect of their opposition to a Republican Senate bill that would but a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on the ballot in 2012: Gay marriage is a distraction from Minnesota’s economic needs.

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, in a statement released in response to the bill introduced Tuesday, blasted the GOP for not spending more time fixing Minnesota’s budget.

“With only four weeks to go to balance the budget, this is not the time to launch an effort to amend the state constitution to further divide Minnesotans from one another,” he said. “Instead of focusing on gay marriage, Senator [Warren] Limmer should get to work on the Public Safety budget that he’s responsible for. Engaging in delays and distractions is unacceptable.”

“The clock is ticking,” he added. “Minnesotans are waiting for an honest, responsible GOP budget.”

Charlie Zelle, CEO of Jefferson Bus Lines and chair of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, criticized the push for the amendment.

“In so many ways, this constitutional amendment is bad for Minnesota employers and a distraction from the real priority for the state: growing the economy,” he said in a statement. “Instead, we need to move Minnesota forward by pursuing policies that are good for business, good for all Minnesota families and will make our state stronger and more competitive.”

He added, “Minnesota’s CEOs and small business owners alike need state lawmakers to stay focused on placing Minnesota’s economy and business environment back on track. A constitutional amendment against full inclusion is not only a distraction but would create a significant setback for Minnesota businesses.”

Ann Kaner-Roth, executive director of Project 515, said that research demonstrates that communities inclusive of gay and lesbian couples often perform better economically.

“The proposed amendment is anti-jobs, anti-business and anti-family,” she said, “A wealth of research finds that inclusion strengthens the economy and Minnesota employers know it. That’s why they are leading the way by implementing inclusive policies in the workplace. We hope state leaders will remember that equality is an advantage.”

Monica Meyer, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, agreed with that assessment.

“Even though the Legislature has critical budgetary issues that need to be addressed, they are taking valuable time to introduce a constitutional amendment that would discriminate against Minnesotans,” she said. “This is completely counter to the direction public opinion is moving. Plus, this constitutional amendment is redundant. Minnesota already has a law in place defining marriage. This proposal takes our state in the wrong direction and tarnishes our constitution with discrimination that Minnesotans don’t support.”

Project 515 and OutFront Minnesota offered evidence to back up their claims.

“Employers with engaged workers have 2.6 times more earnings per share growth and twice the annual net income compared to other companies and inclusive policies are among the strongest indicators of engagement,” according to research by Gallup and the Kenexa Research Institute. The groups also cited studies showing that cities that are more inclusive attract more talented workers, especially in the technology fields.

According to MinnPost, before the announcement, Gov. Mark Dayton said: “I strongly oppose a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage. It [a prohibition] already exists in state law.”

DFL chair Ken Martin sent a passionate appeal to party member in an email Tuesday evening.

It’s official. Today, Republicans in the legislature officially introduced their constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage and write discrimination into our state constitution.

Our fight starts now.

Throughout history, our party has always stood up for equality and fairness. And now we need to mount a strong offense to ensure that the Republicans are not able to turn back the clock on equal rights.

But this fight is not just about fairness and equality.

It’s about our belief that every person in Minnesota should have the ability to marry the person they love. It’s about our belief that government should not sanction discrimination. It’s about creating a culture of respect in society so that every child will be safe at school and have a healthy, respectful learning environment free of harassment and violence.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Family Council, a conservative religious organization that opposes LGBT rights, asked its members to contact their legislators in support of the amendment.

“After seven years, a bill to allow the people of Minnesota to vote on marriage has been introduced in the state Senate. This is fantastic news, but we need you to email your State Senator and tell him or her to pass the marriage amendment bill and put it on the ballot for the people to vote,” the group said. “Remind them that the right to vote is our most important civil right and that this is an issue for the people to decide themselves.”

MFC added, “Legislators are not being asked to decide if marriage is the union of a man and a woman. They are being asked to let the people decide this issue. Demand that House leadership introduce and pass the marriage amendment today.”

“I stand with you,” was the message Gov. Mark Dayton had for LGBT advocates on Thursday afternoon at OutFront Minnesota’s LGBT Lobby Day at the Minnesota Capitol. Dayton was the first sitting governor to address the annual rally, which has been held for more than a decade. Dayton said he will block any efforts to curtail LGBT equality.

On same-sex marriage, Dayton said, “I believe that day will come.”

Though the governor will not be able to block a planned constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions, he said that people should be free to marry the man or woman they love.

On school bullying, Dayton said, “I will resist as best I conceivably can to any attempt to take away rights and protections” for LGBT youth.

Here’s video of Dayton’s remarks via Bluestem Prairie:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar will support a bill that would repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) when it comes up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on which Klobuchar serves, state Sen. Scott Dibble has indicated. DOMA currently prevents same-sex couples legally married in five states, Washington, D.C., and one tribal nation from receiving the federal benefits of marriage. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in February to halt defense of DOMA citing its probable unconstitutionality.

Last week, the Courage Campaign noted that Klobuchar was one of two Democratic senators who hadn’t signed on to the DOMA repeal bill (the other is Wisconsin’s Herb Kohl) and that her office stated that she had not taken a position on the bill. That prompted OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, to initiate a campaign urging constituents to call on her to support the repeal.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Dibble of Minneapolis noted that he spoke with Klobuchar’s staff, who indicated she would vote for the measure.

“I have spoken directly with Amy Klobuchar’s State Director,” Dibble wrote on Facebook. “Senator Klobuchar will be voting for the repeal of DOMA in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Klobuchar’s press office has not responded to the Minnesota Independent’s request for confirmation.

DOMA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. It bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage which, at the time, no states had legalized. Today, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, the District of Columbia and the Coquille Tribal Council in Oregon perform same-sex marriages, and thousands of Californians are also legally married following several months in 2008 prior to the passage of Prop 8 when same-sex marriage was legal.

While Minnesota bans same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples working for government offices, there is one way same-sex couples can be recognized: through domestic partnership registries. On Tuesday, the city of Richfield became the ninth Minnesota city to approve a domestic partner registry, and today LGBT advocates say that 1 million people live in cities across the state that recognize same-sex relationships.

The registries have little legal force — state law and a Minnesota Supreme Court decision bar cities from providing benefits to same-sex couples — but the registries are important for businesses that offer benefits. Same-sex couples can use their registry certificates to prove their relationship is valid for human resource purposes and the couples have married status in city facilities.

The Richfield City Council passed the ordinance on Tuesday by a vote of 3 to 2 and joins Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Paul, Rochester, Maplewood, St. Louis Park, Edina and Golden Valley in offering its residents a domestic partner registry.

“One million Minnesotans now live in cities which, to the extent they are able, treat same- and different-sex couples equally under the law,” OutFront Minnesota said in a statement on Thursday. “Though domestic partner ordinances do not carry anywhere near the legal weight of marriage equality, Minnesota now has nine communities showing that treating all couples — regardless of the gender — equally under the law is both possible and desirable public policy. We look forward to the day when same-sex and different-sex couples are treated equally under the law.”

Richfield resident Philip Lowe, Jr., and his partner Jason King lobbied the city to pass the ordinance.

“One small step towards equality was taken in our City of Richfield,” Lowe stated in an email to the Minnesota Independent. “Domestic partners straight or lesbian/gay can now be counted as citizens of Richfield. We are no longer invisible to our community. Inclusion means people count. Tuesday’s vote forward means that domestic partners can be counted, and that we count in the City of Richfield.”

The city also passed an ordinance allowing employees of the city to receive bereavement leave should their domestic partner pass away. That ordinance passed unanimously on Tuesday.

Though the domestic partner ordinance passed, Lowe said there was some resistance.

“The one obstacle we experienced was Councilman Fred Wroge and Tom Fitzpatrick suggesting that the domestic partner registry ordinance should not be passed, but a resolution made to the State,” Lowe said. The two council members said the issue should be settled at the state level.

“There was some effort on their part to keep domestic partners from being recognized by the City for the purpose of passing the buck,” Lowe said.

But, even though the ordinance will now count same-sex couples among the families in Richfield, it’s mainly a symbolic victory.

“If we were allowed to marry as opposed to just having a domestic partner registry, we would be able to share in the benefits of joint tax returns,” said Lowe. “We would be able to request and possibly gain public assistance from Hennepin County as a married couple, instead of as two single individuals. We would perhaps not have to hire a lawyer and pay $1,500.00 or more to have legal documentation to visit or take care of our spouses in their critical time of need.”

He added, “As a married couple we would not just be documented and recognized as a couple, but we would also share in the same opportunities and benefits that all married couples do. The domestic partner registry is one small step towards equality. But, we need to keep making additional steps together towards full marriage equality for all Minnesotans.”

After years as a low-profile issue at the Minnesota Legislature, same-sex marriage is likely to become a source of controversy next session. New Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate bode well for efforts by the Minnesota Family Council and the Catholic Church, both of which hope to place a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2012. Republican leadership has been mum on the prospect so far, and despite long odds, LGBT advocates hope to advance a few key provisions of their own in 2011.

The Minnesota Family Council, which holds incredible sway with the majority of Republicans in the Legislature, has made the amendment a clear priority.

“Obviously, we’re going to work hard to firm up our support and get it on the ballot, and you know the message is we believe the people should decide the definition of marriage — not the courts or backroom political deals,” the Family Council’s Tom Prichard told OneNewsNow, a Christian website.

In a fundraising pitch for Give to the Max Day on Tuesday, the group said the money would go right to the marriage push. “The recent turnover of both House and Senate has cleared the way to pass a marriage amendment and put it on the ballot in 2012. This is a huge opportunity to protect marriage. Help us seize this moment with the funds to finish the job.”

“God has been ever so faithful to meet MFC’s budget needs to get us this far. I’m most thankful for His provision through your continued support and partnership!”

The group racked up 83 donations on Give to the Max day, compared with OutFront Minnesota, which got 273 donors to give. OutFront is advocating against the amendment.

“You can count on OutFront Minnesota to lead the opposition to any anti-GLBT legislation or constitutional amendment,” executive director Monica Meyer said in an email. “And if a proposed amendment succeeds in getting onto the 2012 ballot, we will fight it.”

She added, “OutFront Minnesota has been taking the cause of marriage equality to the people for years and the results are clear: poll after poll shows more Minnesotans favor marriage equality every year. Presumably the next two years will show more movement toward equality.”

The Minnesota Family Council conducted its own poll before the 2010 election which showed 54 percent of voters supporting marriage as between “one man and one woman,” compared to 40 percent who said it could be “any two people.”

The poll focused on Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and showed he would win the race handily if he focused on opposing gay marriage; “voters strongly support a gubernatorial candidate who supports defending marriage,” the group said. Emmer completely avoided the issue on the campaign trail and currently trails DFLer Mark Dayton by 8,700 votes. A recount is likely later this month.

The Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage spent big money for the survey, but neither Emmer nor Dayton would have a hand in “protecting marriage,” as the Council’s Chuck Darrell explained after the election.

“Our opponents were publicly boasting that they would legalize same-sex marriage in the nest session assuming that they could retain the legislature and elect a governor who supported homosexual marriage,” he said. “Well, it looks like the Lord had a different plan and turned control of both houses over to pro-life, pro-family majority.”

He continued, “What that means is that we can pass a marriage amendment and put it on the ballot in 2012. Why? Well, an amendment only needs to be passed by both houses before being placed on the ballot for the next election — it completely bypasses the governor.”

But will evangelical conservatives see resistance from Republicans who ran on a “jobs and economy” platform largely devoid of social issues? That seems to be the indication from GOP leadership.

Future House Speaker Kurt Zellers told MinnPost, “If it isn’t about jobs, improving the business climate, it’s not a priority.”

And to TheUptake he said, “If that’s something that you care about and something you want to work though in your church or your synagogue or your mosque, you can’t get there if you don’t have a job.”

Future Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch echoed those sentiments.

“I am a social conservative, but we’ve had a conversation with the caucus,” she said. “They ran on the budget, the economy and jobs. We talked about how this is not the time to be messing around [with social issues]. We’re going to be unified on that.”

But Sen. Warren Limmer of Maple Grove broke from the leadership.

“The statement I’ll make is that there’s a keen interest by a majority of the members of both chambers to define marriage, and to allow the public to do so,” he told the Associated Press just after the election.

Republicans won’t only have to contend with the Family Council on the issue of an anti-gay marriage amendment; the Catholic Church in Minnesota will be looking for payback for the DVD campaign that Archbishop John Neinstedt launched just before the election that cost more than $1 million. That campaign urged voters to vote for candidates who would work to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Following the election, the archbishop’s paper, the Catholic Spirit, defended the DVD campaign and spoke of the importance of an amendment.

“Whether the DVD can achieve its objective of getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot remains to be seen,” the paper wrote. The church is seeking a broad ban on rights for same-sex couples. “And because it seeks to morally guide the broader culture, the church does not support civil gay unions under any title.”

St. John Vianney Seminary rector Father Michael Becker said, “All of heaven is summed up in a consummation of a love affair, that Jesus Christ is marrying the church, that God is marrying his people.”

He said that’s why opposing gay marriage is the most important political issue. “The best way we can describe heaven is to speak about marriage. Is marriage just to be one other political issue, very low on the totem pole? Well, if all of heaven is summarized as a wedding, that’s pretty significant.”

Gay marriage isn’t the only issue of concern to the LGBT community or to evangelical conservatives.

Ann Kaner-Roth of Project 515, a group that is working to eliminate the 515 ways Minnesota statute discriminates against same-sex couples, said it’s too soon to know what issues they will tackle with a new Republican majority.

“Like everyone else, we are waiting to see how the new legislature will approach various issues, who the legislative leadership is, what committees are created… Not to mention the conclusion of the gubernatorial race as well as the handful of other races still in recounts,” she said. “So, it’s a bit too early yet to talk about our specific legislative approach for 2011, but we remain committed to full equality for same-sex couples and their families.

She added, “And we’ll continue to educate legislators and others around the 515 statutes that currently discriminate against these families in our community.”

Outfront’s Meyer said that anti-bullying measure will be a top priority as they have picked up Republican supporters in the past. The issue has become a critical policy for the LGBT community following four suicides in the past year that advocates say involved students who were harassed because they were LGBT or their peers thought they were LGBT.

“OutFront Minnesota will continue to lead efforts to pass safe schools legislation to protect students across Minnesota from aggressive bullying and harassment,” Meyer said in an email. “This legislation passed with bipartisan support in 2009, and can again in 2011, this time with a governor who will sign it into law.”

The Minnesota Family Council lobbied heavily in 2009 to defeat any changes to the state’s anti-bullying measures.

Cathedral of St. Paul. Photo: jpellgen, Flickr

Archbishop John Neinstedt says Minnesota’s bishops will be distributing “more than one million” DVDs across Minnesota just weeks before the election. Part of an orchestrated campaign against same-sex marriage, the DVDs were funded by an anonymous donor and produced by the Knights of Columbus, a group that donates to the National Organization for Marriage, which is also running anti-gay marriage ads in Minnesota. While Neinstedt says the effort isn’t about politics, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group slammed the new campaign.

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told the Minnesota Independent that the campaign is titled, “Preserving Marriage in Minnesota.”

The DVD itself,  “One Man, One Woman – Marriage and the Common Good,” is a hodgepodge of anti–gay marriage arguments including statements by Maggie Gallagher, founder of the National Organization for Marriage, who says gay marriage will be taught in schools if it is legalized. (The 14-minute video can be viewed at this Knights of Columbus website.)

“If same-sex marriage becomes the law then those who oppose it will increasingly be viewed as bigots,” says Catholic lawyer Anthony Piccirillo in the video. Legalizing gay marriage, the video charges, would result in loss of school accreditation and professional licenses for doctors who discriminate against same-sex couples and lead to the revocation of tax statuses for religious institutions. The video includes a segment on Courage, a Catholic group that works to change sexual orientation, and claims that same-sex marriage will lead to “polyamory.”

Echoing a theme of the newest TV ad by NOM and the Minnesota Family Council, it even makes the claim that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have opposed same-sex marriage, a position at odds with statements by King’s late widow.

It was created by the Knights of Columbus, a group that gave $1.4 million to NOM over the last year.

“Our target is basically our Catholic people,” Archbishop Nienstedt told KSTP Monday. “To remind them of what we believe and why we believe it and why it’s so important that they believe it.”

“It’s not partisan politics in any way. But you know, it’s kind of rallying the troops around this issue and pointing out to Catholics that this is an important issue in every election year,” he said. “We’re not a political force, but we are a religious force. So we think we should be part of the conversation.”

But Outfront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, said politics is exactly what the DVD campaign is about.

“It is no accident that the Archdiocese’s clarion call for discrimination comes in the closing weeks of the 2010 campaign season,” said OutFront Minnesota Executive Director Monica Meyer. “Using the lives of GLBT people, immigrants, and poor people to provoke fear and advance a political agenda is a time-honored tradition among those whose vision for Minnesota is based on exclusion, marginalization, and demagoguery. It is shameful for a religious institution to stoop to such tactics when there are so many real, pressing issues facing people daily.”

The group is urging recipients to return the DVD.

“If you are one of the 800,000 Minnesota Catholics Nienstedt is targeting with this message of exclusion, intolerance and discrimination, you can send him a powerful message about his misguided priorities by writing ‘RETURN TO SENDER’ on the DVD and leaving it in your mailbox,” OutFront said in a statement on Tuesday.

Neinstedt, whose archdiocese is coordinating the DVD mailing, called same-sex marriage a “pervasive and socially destructive assault on marriage as a life-long, committed and procreative union between one man and one woman,” but said “there is neither prejudice nor bias against any individuals or groups in the statewide educational effort.” He added, “We must move this discussion from the polarizing positions that have played out in the media and begin to speak of the meaning that underlies the nature and purpose
of marriage.”

And while most Catholic leaders have danced around the issue, the Minnesota Catholic Conference says the campaign is really about getting a constitutional amendment to the Minnesota Constitution passed.

“Thirty one states have adopted constitutional amendments preserving the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman,” Christopher Leifeld, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference said in a statement. “Protecting marriage in this way benefits children, families and the common good of society itself. The Minnesota Catholic Bishops agree that Minnesota should follow this lead and let the people of Minnesota decide this issue rather than judges or legislatures.”

OutFront’s Meyer said that the Catholic church should stick to what they do best: charitable works.

“Americans, and Minnesotans, get the point: allowing same-sex couples to marry legally strengthens families and communities,” she said. “For the Catholic Archdiocese to divert funds badly needed to help people in crisis in order to respond to something that is patently not a crisis shows a mind-boggling detachment from the realities facing Minnesotans.”

Meyer said that even if the DVDs only cost $2 a piece, that’s over $1.6 million the Catholic church is spending on the campaign.

She asked, “How many meals could $1.6 million have provided?”