Saturday, August 13, 2011

NOM Loses Two Court Battles to Keep Donors Hidden



Another small, but to my mind significant, news tidbit left over from last week: the anti-gay group National Organization of Marriage this week lost two separate legal battles to circumvent the disclosure laws of states in which it has worked to attack gay citizens and yank away their rights.  As Joe Sudbay reports at Americablog Gay, courts in both Maine and Rhode Island on Thursday rejected NOM attempts to get around laws requiring advocacy groups like NOM to make their donors known, when they engage in political battles like the battle against gay people and their rights.


As I've reported in a number of previous postings (you can follow the trail by clicking the tag "National Organization for Marriage" below), NOM has repeatedly refused to disclose its funders, and persistently files suit in states requiring such disclosure, asking for permission to ignore state laws.  Even when courts have ruled that NOM must disclose its funding sources, as the Maine and Rhode Island courts did this week, NOM repeatedly ignores these court rulings.

At the same time, it's widely thought, for compelling reasons, that NOM acts as a front group for the LDS and Catholic church in those churches' battle against gay citizens and gay rights.  But NOM fights tooth and nail to keep the specifics of its funding streams well-hidden, while claiming it is merely defending democracy against bullying gay special interest groups that are out to get the National Organization for Marriage only because it promotes faith in the public square.

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