What You Need To Know About The National Organization For Marriage The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is the most prominent group working to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry in America. And not only that, they work overtime to demonize gay and lesbian individuals and families. Here’s what you and your fellow students need to know about the organization:
How NOM Operates • NOM is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to combat marriage equality • • •
in Maine, Washington, Minnesota, and Maryland this November NOM is notorious for using misleading scare tactics when fighting marriage equality in state battles (examples: New York, Maryland, California) NOM intentionally works to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks” and uses race-baiting to motivate opposition to marriage equality NOM is responsible for the failed boycotts against Starbucks and General Mills for endorsing same-sex marriage
What NOM Teaches College Students An undercover investigation at NOM’s summer conference revealed that the organization was peddling a number of anti-gay myths to college students, including: • • • • •
gay parents are more likely to molest their children than straight parents gay relationships are unstable and “inherently dysfunctional” lesbian relationships are erratic because women’s menstrual cycles become synchronized homosexuality is worse than polygamy and incest in the eyes of God children raised by gay parents are more likely to identify as gay themselves
What NOM Claims About LGBT People Though NOM claims its “battle is not with an orientation," the organization routinely promotes damaging smears about gay people and homosexuality, including: • • • •
gay people are more likely to engage in pedophilia than heterosexuals homosexuality is an “addictive” and “learned” behavior gay activists are “totalitarian” and want to “control every institution in society” homosexuality can be cured or overcome through therapy
What NOM Wants For Schools NOM isn’t just interested in stopping same-sex marriage. The organization has also opposed a number of efforts to protect LGBT students in public schools, including: • • • •
criticizing anti-bullying measures that protect LGBT students calling for religious exemptions to anti-bullying laws for anti-gay bullies condemning gay-straight alliances as “incubators of moral relativism” lobbying against a law that would require public school curricula to teach students about LGBT people and the LGBT movement For more information on NOM, visit equalitymatters.org.