In Brief

Staff Reports

National Organization for Marriage Pumping $250K Into Maine Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign 

PORTLAND, ME -- The Washington, D.C. based anti-gay political group, the National Organization for Marriage, transferred $250,000 Thursday to the Protect Marriage Maine political action committee, which is spearheading the campaign against Maine's November ballot question seeking to legalise same-sex marriage. 

Protect Marriage Maine campaign manager Frank Schubert, said- during a telephone conference call with reporters Thursday night along with the co-chairman of Protect Marriage Maine and other gay marriage opponents- that NOM's infusion of cash is vital as the ballot question has national implications because Maine could become the first where same-sex marriage is legalized in a popular vote.

"It is a critical race for the survival of the institution of marriage in this country," Schubert said. "It's a race that the entire nation is looking at and will have an impact far beyond the borders of Maine." 

Schubert, a conservative political strategist, is funded by NOM and in addition to the efforts in Maine is also managing other campaigns opposing same-sex marriage ballot initiatives appearing this November in Maryland, Washington and Minnesota.

Opponents in Maine thus far have raised only $100,000 to $200,000, he said, while a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign told LGBTQNation Friday that same-sex marriage supporters expect to raise and spend $5 million or more. 

Schubert acknowledged that recent polling suggests that the Maine ballot question is close. However, he felt confident the question will fail. 

The Maine Legislature in 2009 legalized same-sex marriage, but voters later that year overturned the law 53 percent to 47 percent. 

In Maryland and Washington, residents are voting in November on ballot questions that would overturn same-sex marriage laws passed by those states' legislatures. Voters in Minnesota are voting on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Al Sharpton And Black Ministers Voice Support For Maryland Same-Sex Marriage 

WASHINGTON -- During a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Friday, Black clergy members who support same-sex marriage say they want to dispel the myth that all African-American ministers are against it. About a dozen clergy joined MSNBC host and Reverend Al Sharpton, the Reverend Amos Brown of San Francisco, and Reverend Delman Coates of Clinton, Md., to express support for a November referendum in Maryland to allow same-sex marriage. 

''This is not an issue about gay or straight, this is an issue about civil rights,'' said Sharpton. ''And to take a position to limit the civil rights of anyone is to take a position to limit the civil rights of everyone. You cannot be a part-time civil rights activist. You cannot be for civil rights for African-Americans, but not for gays and lesbians.'' 

Reverend Coates, who is senior pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland, told those gathered that people don't have the right to impose personal religious beliefs on others in matters of public policy. Coates emphasised that the debate over same-sex marriage needed to be a question of public policy, rather than a debate over religious beliefs.

''Admittedly, many of us find the idea of voting on someone else's civil rights a bit disconcerting,'' Coates continued. ''When the rights of the minority are submitted to a vote, all too often the minority loses."

Sharpton, who in addition to his duties as hosting a programme on MSNBC, is president of the National Action Network, said that theological debates should take place in churches, not in government. 

In Crystal City across the Potomac from Washington near the Pentagon in Arlington, the Coalition of African American Pastors or CAAP, held its own press conference Friday with several of the black ministers traveling from Tennessee. The group says it stands for what the bible says. 

Founder Reverend William Owens said President Obama "sold us out," referring to the debate over same-sex marriage.

"All of who follow him who are weak and who have non-biblical principles, I don't care if they have reverend in front of their name, to lead a society downhill for money is sinful and it's wrong and that's what they are doing,” he says. “It's all about money." 

Bishop Harry Jackson, a leading black clergyman in the fight against same-sex marriage first in the District of Columbia and more recently in Maryland, appeared on CBN this morning telling African Americans, who might be torn between voting for Mormon like Mitt Romney and President Obama, who supports an "anti-God, anti-church agenda," that they cannot simply stay home and not vote. 

Instead, Jackson declared, they must support the candidate "whose values line up with clear Biblical mandates," saying sarcastically that "if you can vote for abortion and you can vote for the redefinition of marriage; you want to vote for two men marrying, or open the door for two women and three men and all kinds of crazy stuff - if you can do that and the Holy Spirit can be with out in the ballot box, more power to you."

The two sides are becoming more visible as Election Day approaches. Maryland, which has a black population of about 30 percent, is one of four states where voters will decide the question in November. Maine and Washington also have ballot questions, and Minnesota will be voting on a constitutional ban.
Kevin Nix, a spokesman for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, said the group would be getting its message out in every way, including television, radio and online.

"We will be doing some advertising in the coming weeks," Nix said.