National Organization For Marriage - Criticism and Opposition - Wedge Tactics

Wedge Tactics

In March 2012, NOM memos dated to 2009 advocating strategies of pitting the African-American and homosexual communities against each other, of discouraging Latino assimilation into a culture accepting of same-sex marriage, and of painting President Obama as a "social radical" were released by a federal judge in Maine and published by the Human Rights Campaign. The internal NOM documents state that they seek "to drive a wedge between gays and blacks" by promoting "African American spokespeople for marriage", thus provoking same-sex marriage supporters into "denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots", and to interrupt the assimilation" of Latinos into "dominant Anglo culture" by making the stance against same-sex marriage "a key badge of Latino identity". The documents also showed a goal to "sideswipe" US President Barack Obama by depicting him as a "social radical" via issues including child protection and pornography.

The revealed tactics were described as "one of the most cynical things I’ve ever heard" and "scary" by Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP. The National Black Justice Coalition said that the "documents expose N.O.M. for what it really is – a hate group determined to use African American faith leaders as pawns to push their damaging agenda."

In response to the controversy, NOM stated that the organization has a diverse base of support which includes people of "every color, creed and background" and that it has "worked with prominent African-American and Hispanic leaders, including Dr. Alveda C. King, Bishop George McKinney of the COGIC Church, Bishop Harry Jackson and the New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz Sr." Gallagher, who was president of the organization at the time of the documents, said that their language "makes us sound way too big for our britches", while Brown, president at the time the controversy arose, wrote that the language was "inapt", stating that "it would be enormously arrogant for anyone at NOM to believe that we can make or provoke African-American or Latino leaders do anything".

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