EXCLUSIVE: Unrver At NOM's Anti-Gay Stunt Conference | Media Matters for Ameri

Contents:

• THIS ALLEGEDLY 'GAY' K-POP GROUP IS THRIVG WH RECENT SOLO TRACK 'ADRENALINE'
• EXCLUSIVE: UNRVER AT NOM'S ANTI-GAY STUNT CONFERENCE
• NATNAL ORGANIZATN FOR MARRIAGE CONTU TO SPREAD LI ABOUT GAYS
• NOM: GAY RIGHTS ADVOT DPERATE TO GA GROUND
• NOM: GAY COUPL AREN’T MONOGAMO BEE THEY CAN’T HAVE CHILDREN
• NOM'S LATT GAY-MARRIAGE WORRY: THEIR RIGHT TO DENY RIGHTS MIGHT BE DENIED
• NOM SEEKS 'GLAMORO' BUT 'NONGNIVE' CELEBRI TO PROMOTE ITS ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AGENDA

THIS ALLEGEDLY 'GAY' K-POP GROUP IS THRIVG WH RECENT SOLO TRACK 'ADRENALINE'

When asked what this impli for Om Nom’s sexualy, Voov rponds: “Well, at the time Om Nom was gog to be homosexual, but many members of our staff cid agast that.

Acrdg to NOM, the nference is meant to prepare llege stunts to fend “natural marriage” on their mp by troducg them to a number of proment anti-gay speakers and activists. Beg a 24-year-old gay blogger who has spent the better part of the past two years trackg NOM's anti-gay extremism, I wasn't expectg much when I applied to ITAF's “Emergg Lears” program mid-June. I'd spent most of the month publishg blog post after blog post about ITAF's anti-gay “suggted readg” list, s roster of extreme anti-gay speakers, and s ti to a megachurch lked to the “ex-gay” movement.

If I attend, I ran the risk of beg exposed - all alone - as an unrver “homosexualist” a room full of the very people I'd been wrg about for months. I also wasn't keen on the ia of havg to pretend to be straight ont of dozens of strangers for four days, as I didn't expect I'd be able to attend a NOM nference as an openly gay man whout raisg a few eyebrows.

EXCLUSIVE: UNRVER AT NOM'S ANTI-GAY STUNT CONFERENCE

Sce s foundg 2007, NOM has loudly proclaimed that s "battle is not wh an orientatn"; that, spe opposg gay marriage, the anizatn isn't motivated by animosy towards gay and lbian people.

NATNAL ORGANIZATN FOR MARRIAGE CONTU TO SPREAD LI ABOUT GAYS

This distctn - “we're not anti-gay, jt anti-gay marriage” - has allowed NOM to differentiate self om anizatns that have been labeled "hate groups" for peddlg known falsehoods about LGBT people. So on Thursday, July 26, armed wh ltle more than my mera phone, a notepad, and a hastily-ncted backstory, I board a flight to San Diego to attend what would end up beg one of the most disturbg and overtly homophobic experienc of my life. On the drive to the church, I listened to NOM's Morse celebrate the announcement of San Francis's new archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone - often referred to as the “godfather” of Proposn 8, the California ballot iative that banned gay marriage.

NOM: GAY RIGHTS ADVOT DPERATE TO GA GROUND

She lled same-sex relatnships "herently unstable, " suggtg that gay partners eventually get bored of each other as a rult of havg the same genr. She rpond by assertg that the majory of same-sex upl are “dysfunctnal” and “erratic, ” cg a wily discreded gay parentg study nducted by UT At associate profsor Mark Regnes:.

After lunch, NOM's Cultural Director Thomas Peters gave a lecture on how to e social media s like Facebook and Twter to lobby agast marriage equaly, repeatedly toutg his work  fendg fast food giant Chick-fil-A, which at the time of this nference was jt begng to receive wav of nservative support for s ti to anti-gay groups. He enuraged his dience to vis pro-LGBT news outlets to “know what your opponents are thkg, ” jokg about the number of ads for “gay hookup s” and “pet groomg” he se while browsg LGBT webs:. PETERS: When you're on a gay webse, and aga you have to be reful bee thgs n get pretty crazy pretty quickly, you see much more of the worldview that's surroundg their advocy of this issue.

NOM: GAY COUPL AREN’T MONOGAMO BEE THEY CAN’T HAVE CHILDREN

When you see, for stance, an article about how awful, how horrible Profsor Regnes is wh his exploatn and stereotypg of gay people, and then on the si is ad after sponsored ad for gay hookup s, for pet groomg, and for, I mean, lerally - this is sort of like the worldview of the people who are fightg very serly. One stunt asked whether was appropriate to e the term “gay marriage” when discsg the issue onle, sce the phrase self impli that marriage is a possibily for same-sex upl.

Rememberg Peters' history of support for so-lled “ex-gay” therapy, I jumped at the opportuny to ask him a follow-up qutn - whether was even appropriate to refer to gay people as “gay” at all:. I was jt wonrg, sort of, even as an earlier pot, is the term “gay, ” as opposed to g thgs like “same-sex attracted” or “homosexual” or whatever other phrase, givg too much ground? It seems like the whole “born this way”, like, “gay” as an inty thg has bee problematic or chang the fn, or ces some ground that we might not want to.

So as a Catholic a term which I e is SSA, same-sex attractn, and if you look at, 's also wh people who have moven [sic] out of the gay liftyle to sayg “I was a person and am a person wh same-sex attractn. The most effective and punchit way to do that is go right back to the actual unrlyg qutn of, like, do you believe gay people are born that way, and then you n have a discsn about that. " Jt a month earlier, I'd published an extensive rerd of Gagnon's history of anti-gay extremism: lkg homosexualy to pedophilia, llg homosexualy an unhealthy and stctive liftyle, promotg “ex-gay” therapy, and so forth.

NOM'S LATT GAY-MARRIAGE WORRY: THEIR RIGHT TO DENY RIGHTS MIGHT BE DENIED

For over an hour, Gagnon ced Bible verse after Bible verse explag how J had never meant for marriage to clu same-sex relatnships, argug that homosexual activy is an even greater offense than polygamy the ey of God:. GAGNON: Sce the foundatn, obvly, is more important than the superstcture built on , the ncln om that is that a homosexual relatnship is worse than a polygamist one. The lbian hoeholds, they tend to be much more likely to marry the rat, not jt numbers, numbers and rat, but they're much ls stable than the gay hoeholds.

I'd been exposed a lot of terrible arguments agast allowg same-sex upl to raise children, but “lbians will menstate at the same time” was the kd of claim I'd expect to hear om someone parodyg the anti-gay posn. For nearly two years, I'd wrten extensively about NOM's repeated promotn of the myth that gay people are more likely to engage pedophilia, cludg of their own children.

NOM SEEKS 'GLAMORO' BUT 'NONGNIVE' CELEBRI TO PROMOTE ITS ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AGENDA

Anyone who has spent time trackg anti-gay anizatns knows that the “gays-as-pedophil” smear is one of the most damagg but mon maniftatns of hate speech directed at the LGBT muny. Beg that room, though, watchg dozens of people crang their necks to hear Allen expla the harms posed by same-sex parentg, I realized that he wasn't jt talkg about “gay parents” the abstract; he was talkg about me. When I asked her to expand upon the effect same-sex parents have on their children, Erickson doubled down on the accurate claim that children raised by gay parents are more likely to be gay themselv:.