NOM starts $1.5 million ad campaign

The centerpiece of the organization’s “Religious Liberty Ad Campaign” is a 60-second television spot, titled “A Gathering Storm,” which brings viewers “face to face with the growing religious liberty threat posed by same-sex marriage,” according to the organization’s website.

The ads are airing in Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, NOM co-founder and president Maggie Gallagher said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. She added that the group will announce ad buys in new places during the coming week.

The ad spot highlights 14 individuals, who each read different lines from the minute-long script.

“There’s a storm gathering,” the ad begins. “The clouds are dark. And the winds are strong. And I am afraid. Some who advocate for same-sex marriage have taken the issue far beyond same-sex couples. They want to bring the issue into my life. My freedom will be taken away.”

“But some who advocate for same-sex marriage have not been content with same-sex couples living as they wish,” the ad continues. “Those who advocate want to change the way I live. I will have no choice. The storm is coming.”

Several civil rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, have harshly criticized the new campaign as “phony” and untruthful.

“What’s next for the National Organization for Marriage? Will they hire legendary infomercial pitchman Ron Popeil to hawk their phony agenda?” Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brad Luna said in a statement. “This ad is full of outrageous falsehoods — and they don’t even come out of the mouths of real people.”

But Gallagher defended the campaign as relevant. “Marriage matters because the ideal for a child is a mother and father, and same-sex marriage repudiates that ideal,” she said. “It really does require changing the idea of what marriage is about.”

The ad also reinforces the wide-ranging impact of gay marriage, she added.

“[Gay marriage] is not a private act,” she explained. “You change the legal definition of marriage, you change the meaning for everyone, not just the gay couple down the block.”

Gallagher added that she was pleased with the reactions to the campaign, which has stirred considerable controversy online.

“We have a very powerful response to them,” Gallagher said. “We were the 77th most viewed YouTube video [with] more than 300,000 views. We’re extremely happy with the initial effectiveness. We’re going to continue to work. We have some new ads which will be released this week.”

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George was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. Gallagher said that while George is an “active member” of the organization, he is “not really involved in the operation side.”

NOM is now “looking ahead to the national fight … which we believe will happen very shortly,” Gallagher said. “We want to make the case to Congress that it is not in their interest to overturn the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.”

The Princeton connection

In an effort to fulfill what they perceived as a need for a national conservative organization devoted solely to marriage issues, George and Gallagher founded the organization in 2007 and have been working to provide a platform through which opponents of gay marriage can convey their views to local and state legislatures.

The ties between NOM and Princeton run deep: The organization’s national headquarters are located at 20 Nassau St., and George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program at the University, serves as chair of NOM’s board of directors.

NOM was the largest monetary supporter of Proposition 8, whose passage in November 2008 eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. The organization raised roughly $1.8 million to support the proposition’s passage.

“I’m personally very proud of this,” Gallagher said.

George and Gallagher, both longtime advocates of the movement to keep marriage an exclusively heterosexual institution, worked together at the Institute for American Values.

“Both of us have been longstanding critics of policies and practices that we believe have weakened the institution of marriage and the marriage culture,” George told the ‘Prince’ last September. “NOM pursues its mission mainly by public education and advocacy on behalf of the conjugal conception of marriage as the permanent and exclusive union of husband and wife.”

LGBT Center director Debbie Bazarsky said in e-mail last fall that while the LGBT Center is not involved with any legislation, the center has “had a number of programs to discuss the numerous different perspectives about same-sex marriage in the LGBT community. There are quite a few Princeton students and staff who have been personally involved with marriage equality.”

One of the fundamental points of NOM’s argument is that “gays and lesbians have a right to live as they choose, [but] they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for all of us,” according to the organization’s website.

Bazarsky called this message “offensive and homophobic.”

NOM encourages its members to e-mail legislators in opposition to legislation supporting gay marriage. It also asserts that children need to grow up in the presence of both a mother and father and that healthy marriages contribute to society’s overall welfare.

“Marriage is the original and best department of health, education, and welfare,” George said, adding that marriage is also “a private association that plays an enormously public role.”