Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), on Friday claimed that gay marriage
foes have lost only one popular vote.
In a blog post titled Where
We're At, Brown wrote that “the vast majority of American and
the American people overwhelmingly back marriage.”
“We've suffered some setback this
year, no question,” he said. “But in every case, activist judges
or Democrat controlled legislatures and governorships (in Rhode
Island, Delaware, Illinois and Hawaii) bypassed the people and
imposed same-sex 'marriage' in their states.”
“The only time we've lost a state by
popular vote was last year when the playing field was extremely
skewed by both an extremely liberal political environment and an
outrageous, three to one spending advantage by those who sought to
redefine marriage – approximately $32 million to $10 million (of
which NOM contributed over $5.5 million …),” Brown added, a
reference to Maine's referendum.
However, opponents last year also
attempted to repeal marriage laws in two states. Voters in
Washington and Maryland upheld marriage laws approved by lawmakers.
And Minnesota voters last year rejected an effort to constitutionally
prohibit the state from legalizing same-sex marriage. NOM
spearheaded opposition efforts in all four states.
(Related: Ralph
Reed claims all but four states legalized gay marriage by “judicial
fiat.”)