NOM Tracker

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) the nation’s leading anti-marriage equality advocacy organization that has been instrumental in scaling back rights for gay and lesbian couples and their families since its inception.

NOM has made Iowa a top priority and that they are committed to raising money to spend in Iowa with one purpose: to eliminate marriage equality in the state.

In 2010, after NOM flooded the state with money to influence the judicial retention vote, Brian Brown said that "his group's focus is now to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Iowa to give voters a chance to overturn the court's decision and redefine marriage as being between one man and one woman."

We cannot underestimate NOM’s presence in Iowa, nor their political influence so One Iowa has created this NOM Tracker for our supporters to keep track of what NOM is planning here in Iowa and what they are saying about loving and committed Iowan couples.

NOM Internal Documents Unsealed

In March, 2012, a federal judge ruled that NOM must release internal documents and memos revealing their political strategy to overturn marriage equality in Maine with the No on 1 campaign.

Click below to review all documents:

NOM Exhibit 1: http://ia601207.us.archive.org/20/items/NationalOrganizationForMarriageDocuments/Nom1.pdf

NOM Exhibit 2: http://ia601207.us.archive.org/20/items/NationalOrganizationForMarriageDocuments/Nom2.pdf

NOM Exhibit 3: http://ia601207.us.archive.org/20/items/NationalOrganizationForMarriageDocuments/Nom3.pdf

NOM Exhibit 4: http://ia601207.us.archive.org/20/items/NationalOrganizationForMarriageDocuments/Nom4.pdf

NOM Memos Reveal Iowa Strategy to “Rollback Gay Marriage”

A federal judge ruled that NOM must release internal documents and memos revealing their political strategy in the successful bid to rollback marriage equality in Maine with the No on 1 campaign. NOM had hoped to overturn state ethics laws that required the group to release the names of donors who helped finance their efforts in Maine.

NOM’s documents revealed an aggressive strategy to “rollback gay marriage” in states where they saw an opportunity to leverage their financial assets. Most notably, they sought to go after Iowa and New Hampshire because of their relevance in the 2012 presidential elections.

NOM budgeted $1,000,000 for their efforts to “rollback” marriage in Iowa.

Confidential memos reveal strategies to fight same-sex marriage in Iowa
April 3, 2012, The Des Moines Register
Click here to read the full article from The Des Moines Register

Below are key quotes from the NOM documents showing their strategy in Iowa:

“(…)by making marriage an issue in the 2010 election in these states (Iowa and New Hampshire), we expect to force presidential contenders to deal with the issue, and since we know these are generally pro-marriage states, we anticipate pro-marriage candidates to do well and thus influence the U.S. presidential races in 2012.”

“Iowa. We know that there are key opportunities in Iowa, and have been working closely with Congressman Steve King to lay out a plan to flip the Iowa legislature.”

“NOM Budget for Iowa 501(c)(4)……………………………………………….$1,000,000”
--PG 15, NOM EXHIBIT 1, 'National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle' 8/11/09

“Just hours after the Iowa Supreme Court ruling imposing same-sex marriage on the state, NOM launched a grassroots advocacy center allowing people from all across the nation to contact a group of key Iowa Democratic Legislators urging them to support a constitutional amendment to the Iowa Constitution—a long process, but the only way of reversing the Court ruling.”

“With the help of Congressman Steve King, NOM robo-called the entire state (more than 250,000 households) in response to the court decision, urging Iowans to call their legislators. We also asked if we could call back and ask them for money.”
--PG 8, NOM EXHIBIT 2, 'National Organization for Marriage Board Update 2008-2009'

“Of these six states [with marriage], New Hampshire and Iowa are the two states that have direct implications for the 2012 presidential elections and also they happen to be ones where it is possible to roll back. For these reasons, priority will be given to these.”
–PG 7, NOM EXHIBIT 4, 'Marriage: $20 Million Strategy for Victory'

“We know that there are key opportunities in Iowa, and have been working closely with Congressman Steven King to lay out a plan for Iowa to flip the legislature. This money will be used to both hire a full-time employee, set-up and administer and office, and to deal with the legal obligations in creating and administering a state political action committee.”
--PG 9, NOM EXHIBIT 4, 'Marriage: $20 Million Strategy for Victory'

“2010 Priority: Roll Back Gay Marriage in New Hampshire, Iowa and D.C.
New Hampshire and Iowa are the two states that have direct implications for the 2012 presidential elections, and they also happen to be the states with the greatest possibility for victory…Therefore NOM’s top priorities for rolling back gay marriage in 2010 will be New Hampshire, Iowa, and the District of Columbia.”
-–PG 14, NOM EXHIBIT 3, 'National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle' 12/15/09

“Because gay marriage was imposed via a state supreme court decision, reversing gay marriage in Iowa will not be a quick or easy process. It will require electing a new legislature and then votes in two successive years to refer a marriage amendment to a vote of the people.

"In the process however, by keeping he marriage issue front and center in Iowa politics, we will influence the 2012 presidential campaign indirectly, and emerge with important political assets that will serve candidates who articulate a strong marriage message.”
-–PG 16, NOM EXHIBIT 3, 'National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle' 12/15/09

NOM on Race

What those documents revealed was an aggressive race-baiting strategy in which NOM planned to create a divide between communities of color—most notable African Americans and Latinos—and the LGBT community.

“Not a Civil Right Project; The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African-American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push issue that splits the base of the party.”
--PG 13,NOM EXHIBIT 2, 'National Organization for Marriage Board Update 2008-2009'

"Race Analogy (…) we also need to accomplish a sophisticated cultural objective: interrupt the attempt to equate gay with black, and sexual orientation with race.”
--PG 14, NOM EXHIBIT 2, 'National Organization for Marriage Board Update 2008-2009'

"[B]y searching for these leaders across national boundaries we will assemble a community of next generation Latino leaders that Hispanics and other next generation elites in this country can aspire to be like. (As "ethnic rebels" such spokespeople will also have an appeal across racial lines, especially to young urbans in America). ... [W]e will develop Spanish language radio and TV ads, as well as pamphlets, YouTube videos, and church handouts and popular songs. Our ultimate goal is to make opposition to gay marriage an identity marker, a badge of youth rebellion to conformist association to the bad side of "Anglo" culture.
--PG 21, NOM EXHIBIT 1, 'National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle' 8/11/09

"The Latino vote in America is a key swing vote, and will be so even more so in the future, both because of demographic growth and inherent uncertainty: Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values? We must interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity -- a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation.

..."The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks -- two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of his party. Fanning the hostility raised in the wake of Prop 8 is key to raising the costs of pushing gay marriage to its advocates ... find attractive young black Democrats to challenge white gay marriage advocates electorally."
PG 13, NOM EXHIBIT 2, 'National Organization for Marriage Board Update 2008-2009'

Vander Plaats launches effort to oust another Supreme Court justice
8/12/12, Globe Gazette

DES MOINES — Conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats announced an effort Saturday to defeat Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins in the Nov. 6 judicial retention vote.

...Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage pledged his group would provide a match of up to $100,000 to contributions that are made during the next two weeks in the campaign against Wiggins.

NOM Calls for Federal Investigation To Hide Its Own Wrongdoing
4/5/12, Think Progress

The National Organization for Marriage continues to pretend the release of its damning race-baiting confidential memos last week is not a big deal, but it is now outraged that one of its tax returns was leaked, revealing that Mitt Romney had secretly given the group $10,000 to advocate for Proposition 8 in 2008. Today, NOM’s Brian Brown demanded a federal investigation of the Human Rights Campaign and the Internal Revenue Service for the memo getting out:

BROWN: It appears that someone with either the IRS or the HRC may have committed a federal crime by illegally obtaining and then releasing a confidential tax return of the National Organization for Marriage. It’s clear that the tax return was stolen, either from NOM or from the government. The Huffington Post article says that HRC claimed they received the document from a ‘whistleblower.’ But the term ‘whistleblower’ is completely inapt. We’re talking about a criminal who has stolen confidential tax return information. We demand to know who this criminal is, whether they work for the HRC or the IRS, and how they obtained confidential tax information filed only with the US government.

Anti-Gay Marriage Group Recommends Creating Tension Between Gays and Blacks
3/27/12, The New York Times

An internal memo from one of the country’s leading anti-gay marriage organizations outlines a plan to defeat same-sex marriage and create division among Democrats by creating tension between gays and blacks over the issue.

The memo was contained in a trove of documents unsealed by a federal judge on Monday in a case in Maine, where the group, the National Organization for Marriage, spearheaded a successful ballot initiative in 2009 to outlaw gay marriage and has sued to overturn state ethics laws that would require the group to reveal the donors who financed that effort.

Editorial: Divide and Discriminate
4/2/12, The New York Times

When a light is shined into the dark corners of American politics, it’s never pleasant to see what scurries away. Last week, a federal judge in Maine unsealed memos from the National Organization for Marriage, one of the most prominent groups fighting against same-sex marriage.

They relate to a case filed over whether the group must disclose the donors that helped underwrite a 2009 ballot initiative that overturned the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage. The group uses its designation as a social welfare organization to avoid federal disclosure, but the memos dispel any notion that the claim has any legitimacy. National Organization for Marriage is a political group, through and through.

NOM in Iowa

March 2012
NOM Is Back in Iowa
3/20/12, NOM Blog
NOM is back in Iowa and once again, they are bringing their extreme agenda and their money to the state with a purpose: to bully our legislators into passing a marriage ban.
Partnering with anti-gay advocates Bob Vander Plaats and the Family Leader, NOM Executive Director Brian Brown will head to the Capitol this Tuesday with Bob Vander Plaats and a promise to hand in 20,000 signatures in support of a marriage ban.

Watch video of Brian Brown at The Family Leader's Marriage Rally:

November, 2011
SD 18 Special Election

Summer 2011
NOM Bus Tour
NOM Marriage Pledge

November 2010
Judicial retention election

For more information about NOM visit the following sites:
www.nom.org
GLAADs accountability media project
8: The Mormon Proposition

Keep checking back for updated information! Email molly@oneiowa.org if you see something we should include!