Wednesday, December 29, 2010
National Organization for Marriage LATE Again With Federal Tax Returns
WASHINGTON, DC – The four year old National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and the National Organization for Marriage Foundation (NOMF) has once again failed to file its required Federal Income Tax Returns. Their IRS 2009 returns for both of these non-profits, their 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 were due on May 15, 2010. If they received an extension, then they were due October 15, 2010. Now they are 2 ½ months LATE!
I recently visited their new National Office in Washington, DC twice during regular office hours to view the returns. No one was there. They must make them available to anyone during regular business hours. We also have checked online repeatedly for their 2009 returns, and again, nothing. What is NOM trying to hide? Why do they not file their tax returns every year?
How do you say, “Front Group?” I went again to the NOM National Office
at 2029 K Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 to see their
2009 Tax Returns. Notice the UPS delivery slip on the doorknob.
Neighbors said they never see anyone there, yet they are leading
the fight against gay marriage in 14 states.
Déjà Vu
I went through the identical exercise in 2009 when I attempted to view NOM’s 2007 and 2008 990’s, but they never filed those either. We visited their then National Office in Princeton, NJ many times and no one was ever there either.
One set of 990’s was 5 months late. The other set was 17 months late, when finally, the night before NOM President Brian Brown was to testify in front of the Maine Ethics Commission last year, all of their delinquent tax returns magically appeared on the NOM web site.
It was too late to stave off a State of Maine investigation of NOM, because in spite of threatening to sue the State of Maine (which NOM eventually did), the Maine Ethics Commission voted to investigate the National Organization for Marriage for election “Money Laundering.”
NOM President Brian Brown getting questioned by reporters right after
Maine Ethics Commission voted to investigate his organization for alleged
money laundering.
NOM is not above the law. They need to file their Income Tax Returns like everyone else and every other organization. We are entitled to see just how much money they raised and spent in 2009. Whom are they trying to protect?
NOM has sued 14 states to invalidate those state’s campaign finance laws. 12 of those lawsuits were in 2010 alone. NOM hopes to invalidate those state’s election laws, so when they spend their millions in those 14 states, it would not have to be reported.
NOM goes into these states and attacks anyone and everyone viciously that dares to support marriage equality in this country, and they do it without obeying election laws. They even subpoenaed me last year as soon as I filed the complaint against them in Maine. They are relentless.
Congressional Investigation of NOM -- Now a “Hate Group”
We have tried repeatedly to get the Congress to investigate the National Organization for Marriage. There are numerous active complaints filed against NOM with the IRS. We need to get to the bottom of this highly questionable organization, now officially designated a “Hate Group,” by the prestigious Southern Poverty Law Center. CLICK HERE
Where’s Doug Manchester? He’s Not on Bust the Blacklist!
Manchester’s close friend, fellow San Diegan Terry Caster, who gave $693,000 to qualify and pass Proposition 8, is on NOM’s list. Guess the last thing Doug Manchester wants is any more publicity. He got a lousy return on his $125,000 contribution to take away marriage equality in California – at least $30 million in lost business to the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel alone!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Via JMG: NORTH CAROLINA: Openly Gay Man Elected To Head Council Of Churches
An openly gay man has been elected to head North Carolina's Council of Churches. Stan Kimer, 55, is a retired businessman and a lay leader of the Metropolitan Community Church. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. In California, a lesbian was elected president in the late 1990s. That makes Kimer's presidency of the N.C. Council - a coalition of 17 Christian denominations and eight individual churches that work on social issues - historic in the South. It also signals an acceptance among member denominations - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics - that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don't see it as an issue worth fighting. "A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this," said the Rev. George Reed, the council's executive director. "But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor."A sample reader comment on the above-linked Charlotte Observer story: "Having him over the board of church's is like building a mosck on ground zero. Its obsurd!!!! If he is a true Christian and in fact reads the word of god then he should know how the lord feels about homosexuals. Sir you are an abomination and when you burn your smoke and ashes will ascend up to his nostrils like insence. Read it for yourself!!!"
Monday, December 27, 2010
Via Fred Karger: President Obama, Evolve Already!
President Obama, Evolve Already!
By Fred Karger
Founder, Rights Equal Rights
Posted: December 24, 2010 05:35 PM
For link to story, Click Here
WASHINGTON, DC - Like millions of Americans, I was so happy to see the president's bill signing ceremony. Don't Ask, Don' Tell created nearly 18 years of government sanctioned and enforced discrimination. Now that it is on its way out, the president seemed genuinely happy for the first time in months.
See how great it can be to do the right thing. All that excitement and emotion at the signing ceremony was seen and heard around the world.
Barack Obama was probably one of the first prominent Americans to support gay marriage way back in 1996 when he was first running for state office in Illinois.
"I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages," Obama wrote in the typed, signed, statement 14 years ago.
Then he switched his position, to opposing gay marriage, when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
The president is undoubtedly the only person to ever change his position on gay marriage the wrong way. Every day, gay marriage opponents are switching their positions and supporting full marriage equality, but no one has ever gone the other way.
Now President Obama says that he is "evolving" (again) on gay marriage.
I hope that the president will continue to evolve and help our community end all the hate and discrimination that is hurled at us. There are way too LGBT Americans who do not feel equal. I know. I felt that way for far too long.
The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community is at least 21 million strong in this country, and we will no longer be second class citizens.
Gay marriage sends a very loud and clear message to LGBT youth that they are equal. When gay marriage is the law of the land, that will become our civil rights bill. What a strong message to younger people when that day comes.
Like the president said in his speech yesterday, "We area a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal."
President Obama, please come back to the right side of history and lead. Support full marriage equality for everyone in this country, and let's repeal the Defense of Marriage Act next year!
Fred's HuffPost column has been picked up all over and appeared in many blogs and posts. Here are some of the links:
Regator President Obama, Evolve Already
Democrati President Obama, Evolve Already
The Freedomist President Obama, Evolve Already
World News Mania President Obama, Evolve Already
Onyx Book President Obama, Evolve Already
RSS Hog Blog President Obama, Evolve Already
The America News President Obama, Evolve Already
Friday, December 24, 2010
Via JMG: Joe Biden: Gay Marriage Is Inevitable
During an appearance on the Today Show, this morning Vice President Joe Biden said that he agreed with the president's "evolving" position on gay marriage and that a "national consensus" on the issue is inevitable. “I think the country’s evolving,” he said. “And I think you’re going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so called DOMA [Defence of Marriage Act].” DOMA prohibits federal government from recognising gay marriage, meaning that even if states allow the practice, gay couples still cannot access federal benefits. Mr Biden added that attitudes had changed to openly gay soldiers and that consensus was beginning to turn in favour of gay marriage. He said that gay troops were now “widely accepted” and “the same thing is happening now in regard to the issue of marriage.”
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Via JMG: PROMISE RING: Lt. Dan Choi Gets His West Point Ring Back From Sen. Harry Reid
Sen. Harry Reid has returned Lt. Dan Choi's West Point ring, fulfilling a promise he made to Choi at Netroots Nation in front of hundreds of progressive writers, including yours truly. Upon receipt of the ring, Choi tweeted: "The next time I get a ring from a man, I expect it will be for full, equal, American marriage.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Via JMG: Obama On "Evolving" Marriage Position
Yesterday the president sat down with Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld, who reminded him of his recent comment that his position on same-sex marriage has been evolving. OBAMA: I'm not going to make more news today. The sentiment I expressed then is still where I am—which is, like a lot of people, I'm wrestling with this. My attitudes are evolving on this. I have always firmly believed in having a robust civil union that provides the rights and benefits under the law that marriage does. I've wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.Eleveld then pressed the president as to a timeline for "getting there" on marriage. Obama: "I'm going to stick with my answer."
OBAMA: And squaring that circle is something that I have not done yet, but I'm continually asking myself this question and I do think that—I will make this observation, that I notice there is a big generational difference. When you talk to people who are in their 20s, they don't understand what the holdup is on this, regardless of their own sexual orientation. And obviously when you talk to older folks, then there’s greater resistance. And so this is an issue that I'm still wrestling with, others are still wrestling with. What I know is that at minimum, a baseline is that there has to be a strong, robust civil union available to all gay and lesbian couples.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
via jmg: Sen. Lindsey Graham About To Be Outed?
Wonkette reports that outing kingpin Mike Rogers finally has the goods on Sen. Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s favorite lifelong bachelor and former military prosecutor, is always reliably against homosexuals having any basic human rights in America because Lindsey’s a Republican, y’all. Anyway, famous outer-of-self-hating-queers Mike Rogers says he’s got pictures of one of Lindsey’s boy toys leaving Lindsey’s house. This would be SHOCKING because come on, everybody knows Republicans cannot be gay because Jesus did not make gays.Mike Rogers has a 100% track record for correctly outing anti-gay closet cases. He's never been proven wrong.
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