Despite a low turnout, National
Organization for Marriage (NOM) President Brian Brown told supporters
that Saturday's March for Marriage was a “tremendous success.”
“I'm writing with great news – the
2016 March for Marriage this past Saturday in Washington was a
tremendous success!” Brown wrote in a fundraising letter. “We
had about 400 people join us at the rally and march and they were an
enthusiastic and inspiring group of supporters!”
According to a head-count by
ThinkProgress,
fewer than 250 people, including passersby and children, made it to
the event.
This year's annual march was the first
since the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that gay
and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.
At the event, Brown described marriage
rights for gay couples as a “profound lie” similar to slavery and
compared opponents of marriage equality to abolitionists.
(Related: NOM's
Brian Brown compares opponents of gay marriage to abolitionists.)
Brown added in his letter that he
expected that “the crowd would be smaller than past marches because
people are still grieving from the U.S. Supreme Court's illegitimate
decision redefining marriage” and that attendance would increase as
“word spreads.”