NOM's passive/aggressive exploitation of its supporters

Brian Brown of NOM

Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage claims that the organization has no animus against the lgbt community. They claim that the organization is only interested in "protecting marriage."

Gallagher herself has asserted on more than one occasion (usually in mainstream interviews or in public hearings but hardly ever when being interviewed by members of the religious right) that she has no problems with same-sex couples.

It's passive/aggressive nonsense. And that is NOM's game plan. Unlike other organizations such as the Family Research Council or the Traditional Values Coalition, NOM tries to make itself seem like a "kindler, gentler" opponent of marriage equality, i.e. lgbt equality in general.

But it's like what I have said when talking about Mike Huckabee - sometimes the most dangerous form of homophobia is wrapped in a soft glove.

A perfect example is the following on NOM's blog:

AG Eric Holder Refuses to Enforce Federal Immigration Rules on Marriage, Invites NJ to Redefine "Spouse"

In what's being called an "extraordinary" intervention, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder vacated a Board of Immigration Appeals decision last week and asked the Board to reconsider a case concerning a foreign-born man facing deportation who acquired a New Jersey civil union with another man, who is an American citizen:

[AG Holder] inquires if, DOMA Section 3 not withstanding, there is any New Jersey state law that would grant the men the right to be considered spouses. He goes on to ask whether, absent of DOMA, the couple fulfills all other criteria that would grant the foreign-born partner the term spouse under the Immigration and Nationality Act... --Care2

The case NOM is talking about is a recent one involving a married gay couple in which one is not a United States citizen and therefore is facing deportation:

The couple, Josh Vandiver of Colorado and Henry Velandia of Venezuela, were married in Connecticut and live in New. Jersey. On April 20, Soloway received a notice from the chief counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that "termination of [Velandia's] removal proceedings would not be appropriate at this time because "the Attorney General released a statement in which he indicated that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) 'will continue to be enforced by the Executive Branch'" -- despite Holder's decision in that same statement that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.

Soloway and others have argued, however, that the discretion given to the executive branch in its enforcement of immigration law allows it to exercise the discretion to put those cases on hold while challenges to the constitutionality of DOMA can be resolved.

Had the couple been heterosexual, the marriage would have been enough to keep deportation from taking place.

Notice what the NOM did. It just put out a tad bit of information. No making judgements. No comments about how this hurts marriage. No mean words.

Like a stereotypical mafia chief, NOM leaves all of that dirty work to those who support it by way of the comments section below the post. A few comments are as follows:

Wow. Is there really that much money flowing in from homosexuals to waste taxpayer money on this? Keep it up, Holder; November 2012 is coming soon.

This administration has less respect for democracy and law than any administration in history. If you don't like a law personally, simply ignore it.

Heh. I thought SSM activists keep saying that gays will uphold and strengthen the tradition of marriage by Only Getting Married For The Sake Of Love And Faithfulness and not, say, marrying for wealth, fame, or U.S. Citizenship.

. . . Now another reason why SSM hurts is becasue they can marry in a state like CT, and use that marriage to violate the laws of another state, and to violate the US immigration laws.

Holder should resign.

And there you go. NOM's hands are clean. Why should it be blamed for the words of those who support the organization's efforts?