The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) is railing against a proposed gay-inclusive adoption policy in
Virginia, calling it “mandatory gay adoption.”
NOM, the nation's most vociferous
opponent of gay marriage, urged members to oppose proposed changes by
the Virginia Department of Social Services to its adoption policy.
The new language would prohibit private
adoption agencies from discrimination based on sexual orientation,
disability or family status.
“Rep. Anthony Weiner may have joked
about 'mandatory gay marriage,' at the WH Correspondents dinner, but
amazingly, Virginia's Dept. of Social Services is proposing new
regulations that would require all adoption and foster-care agencies
to do gay adoptions,” wrote Maggie Gallagher, board chair of NOM.
The comments belie Gallagher's previous
statements that neither she nor her group were anti gay.
At a tour stop last summer in St. Paul,
Brian Brown, the group's president, said NOM was only about
protecting marriage as between a man and a woman.
“We've taken great pains to make
clear what we are all about,” Brown said. “We view ourselves as
a new civil rights movement. … Committed to something that in the
1960s was key: the right to vote [on marriage.]”
“We stand for tolerance,” he added.
Writing
at the lesbian website LezGetReal.com, Bridgette P. LaVictoire
said it was time to unmask NOM's true motives.
“The time has come – indeed, it has
come – for the National Organization for Marriage to stop
pretending that it is anything other than an anti-LGBT group
dedicated to hurting, harassing and punishing lesbians, gays,
bisexuals and trans people. It is obvious that their message is not
to defend 'traditional marriage' – as in Christian marriage – but
rather to hurt those who love those who are of the same sex as they
are.”
NOM is the group behind measures in
Maine and California that have repealed gay marriage at the ballot
box.