Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is an American non-profit political organization established to work against the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.

[2] The group has opposed civil union legislation[3][4] and gay adoption,[5] and has fought against allowing transgender individuals to use bathrooms that accord with their gender identity.

NOM claims it has a wide base of grassroots support, however the majority of its funding comes from a very few anonymous sources making large donations.

[24] Gay rights activist Fred Karger said in 2010 that NOM is connected to LDS Church, with large private donations coming from Mormon sources.

"[28] In 2010, NOM was involved in successful efforts to oust three Iowa Supreme Court judges who had concurred in a decision that effectively legalized same-sex marriage there.

The campaign included a billboard comparing representative Angelo Puppolo to Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold after he changed his position to oppose the amendment.

[36] NOM chairman Maggie Gallagher expressed her disagreement with the ruling, targeting Walker's sexuality and accusing him of "substituting his views for those of the American people and of our Founding Fathers."

[47] When NOM used the abbreviation "2M4M" for their "2 Million for Marriage" campaign, the media noted that in personal ads, "2M4M" is code for two men seeking a third male sexual partner.

Christopher Ambler, a consultant in rapid web development who characterizes himself as a "happily married straight guy", purchased the domain "2M4M.org"[48] and branded it as "Two Men For Marriage," running material counter to NOM's 2M4M aims.

[49][50][51] The 2M4M campaign used an advertisement, "Gathering Storm", in which actors, primarily Mormons from Arizona,[17] standing against a dramatic storm-cloud background, voiced opposition to same-sex marriage.

"[54][55] New York Times columnist Frank Rich described the "Gathering Storm" advertisement as "an Internet camp classic",[52] and it was parodied by Stephen Colbert, the website Funny or Die,[56] and in the Futurama episode "Proposition Infinity".

On April 30, 2009, NOM and beauty pageant winner Carrie Prejean launched another ad campaign against gay marriage, called "No Offense".

The Christian Science Monitor described the spot as listing a "litany of grievances" as an "ominous score" plays, with a potentially embarrassing error for a campaign based on education: misspelling marriage as marraige.

[61] During the 2016 North Carolina gubernatorial election, NOM released an ad criticizing Democratic candidate Roy Cooper for his support for allowing transgender individuals access to bathrooms that reflect their gender identity.

After pro-same-sex-marriage Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race,[64][65] Hoffman lost to Democrat Bill Owens,[66] who also opposed gay marriage, by a 2.3% margin.

"[74] In addition, Maggie Gallagher has used the phrase "the Dede effect" to describe Republican lawmakers' fear of alienating their constituents by voting for same-sex marriage legislation.

[78] The tour ended with a rally at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., while pro-gay marriage activists held a simultaneous event at the Freedom Plaza.

In October 2010 the suit was dismissed; the court called the filing "disorganized, vague and poorly constructed" and gave the group one week to refile the lawsuit.

NOM provided more than $300,000 to the committee supporting North Carolina's Amendment 1, a 2012 referendum which would alter the state's constitution to forbid marriage and all other recognition for same-sex couples.

[110][111][112] The lawsuit arose from the March 2012 disclosure of NOM's 2008 IRS Form 990, Schedule B (which contained donor data) to an LGBT rights advocacy group and to the media.

[113][115] On September 20, 2013, NOM announced that they would gather signatures aimed at putting a proposition on the November 2014 California ballot to repeal a law addressing the rights of transgender students.

Brown said that "Opening our most vulnerable areas at school including showers, bathrooms and changing rooms to members of the opposite sex is politically-correct madness that risks the privacy and security of our children and grandchildren.

"[116] On February 24, 2014, the California secretary of state's office reported that the proposition had failed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the November election.

[118] He spoke to Committee on International Affairs of the State Duma, telling them that persecution of religious people would arise from permitting equal rights in any form.

[45] NOM, arguing that their lawsuit was likely to succeed, sought a federal restraining order to avoid having to provide donor names before the date of the balloting, which U.S. District Court Judge David Brock Hornby denied.

[40] In February 2011, Hornby issued a summary judgment ruling that Maine's disclosure law was valid, a decision NOM appealed and lost in August 2011.

"[142] The Southern Poverty Law Center included NOM on its Winter 2010 list of "anti-gay groups" that "have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals.

[155] In March 2012, NOM memos dated to 2009 advocating strategies of pitting the African-American and homosexual communities against each other, of discouraging Latino assimilation into a culture accepting of same-sex marriage, and of painting President Obama as a "social radical" were released by a federal judge in Maine and published by the Human Rights Campaign.

The documents also showed a goal to "sideswipe" US President Barack Obama by depicting him as a "social radical" via issues including child protection and pornography.

"[162] In response to the controversy, NOM stated that the organization has a diverse base of support which includes people of "every color, creed and background" and that it has "worked with prominent African-American and Hispanic leaders, including Dr. Alveda C. King, Bishop George McKinney of the COGIC Church, Bishop Harry Jackson and the New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz Sr."[163] Gallagher, who was president of the organization at the time of the documents, said that their language "makes us sound way too big for our britches",[162] while Brown, president at the time the controversy arose, wrote that the language was "inapt", stating that "it would be enormously arrogant for anyone at NOM to believe that we can make or provoke African-American or Latino leaders do anything".