The hatred which NOM feeds upon

I sincerely hope that regardless of how the NY vote goes, we don't see more scenes like the one below:



At .50 where it starts to get out of hand.

According to Capitol Confidential, this is what happened:

The arrival of Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. prompted a mini-parade despite the tight quarters and the presence of numerous marriage advocates — such as Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, who prompted a heated reaction from one of the Orthodox protesters by throwing an arm over his shoulder as she attempted to insert herself between Diaz and the cameras.

“You’re not a Jew! You’re not a Jew!,” he responded, just before a trooper moved in to ease the loose procession down the stairway.

So Rabbi Kleinbaum was trying to get into the picture. Big deal. She didn't push and shove herself in the way. And what if she throw her arm around the other rabbi? I've been in situations where folks opposing issues have done just that - posed for pictures together with their arms around each other in a show of basic civility.

The point here is that I don't totally blame the other rabbis for their nasty behavior.

I blame the National Organization for Marriage. The organization causes incidents like this. It feeds upon them.

Look, marriage equality is not an easy issue to deal with. There are folks with strong opinions on both sides. But it's not like any other argument where they can agree to disagree and treat each other at least with a modicum of civility.

That is unless there is an interloper which comes in and exploits people's differences of opinions, fears, and ignorance for its own purposes, making sure to exacerbate the anger and rage to a fever pitch.

And that's what NOM does. It's like a virus, interjecting itself into communities claiming the noblest of intentions while fostering resentment and fear. We see how NOM plays the African-American community against the lgbt community or the Hispanic community against the lgbt community, neighbor against neighbor, lawmaker against lawmaker, not to mention spreading phony stories about gays "recruiting children" - the end result being that the community becomes an angry psychological wreck while NOM (and its leaders Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher) go to another community to begin the process all over again.

Say what you will, this is not a way to defend morality. It's simply setting up a powder keg.