What NOM really wants

Maggie Gallagher's National Organization for Marriage is doing a bus tour in the East/Midwest to heighten awareness of, and opposition to, marriage equality.

Apparently it's not going so well, as the pro-equality counter-protesters are equaling or exceeding Mag's numbers. There has been great coverage at Prop8trialtracker.

But amongst the flowery sweet soft thoughts of "religious freedom" and "children's welfare", let's not forget what the opponents of marriage equality REALLY think and what they REALLY want. More here.

UpdateProp8trialtracker reports today that the latest stop on the tour, in Madison WI, had the NOM-mers outnumbered 8 to 1 by equality supporters with signs of love and hope. The NOM group walled themselves off behind police tape. At other stops, they have threatened counterprotesters with arrest (though the police later apologized). Seems NOM thinks only hate speech should be free.


Update 2: some consideration of hate speech generally. A progressive organization called the Tides discovered that it was on the target list of a heavily armed man involved in a shootout with the California Highway Patrol last week. As in so many of the recent acts of violence, this was a gun-mad guy mad at liberals.

Writing in the SF Chronicle, the head of Tides writes,

This incident serves to remind us that it should be the obligation of every American, especially those whose voices are amplified by the media, to foster civil discourse and dialogue among those who may disagree about public matters. One does not win an argument by inciting troubled people to violence.

(H/T the Lead)

I don't think NOM and its fans are helping.