Maggie Gallagher, the board chair of
the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has threatened
Republicans who voted for a gay marriage law in New York with a
“bloody mess.”
NOM is the nation's most vociferous
opponent of marriage equality and strongly opposed the legislation
that went into effect in the Empire State on Sunday.
The
group organized rallies in four cities – Manhattan, Albany,
Rochester and Buffalo – to protest the law on its first day.
In a Christian Broadcasting Network
(CBN) interview which aired Monday, Gallagher acknowledged that the
Republican Party is growing weary of the issue.
“What was new in New York is that the
Republican Party helped pass a gay marriage bill. We're going to
have to reverse that. What Republican elites are threatening to do
is shut down the Republican Party as an effective vehicle, so there
will be no party willing to stand for marriage. So, it's mission
critical here.”
“Ask Dede Scozzafava whether it was a
good idea that she voted for gay marriage. She's not a congressman
from New York right now, because she voted to pass gay marriage,”
Gallagher said, referring the 2009 skirmish that pushed Scozzafava
out of the race to represent the people of New York's 23rd
district. The choice of gay marriage foes, third-party candidate
Doug Hoffman, however, lost the race to Democrat Bill Owens. Owens
does not support marriage equality, but he did vote to repeal “Don't
Ask, Don't Tell,” the policy that bans gay and bisexual troops from
serving openly.
“And I think it's going to be a
bloody mess in New York, but after the 2012 elections it's going to
be very clear to the Republican Party that it's a bad idea to vote
for gay marriage if you're a Republican,” she added. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
NOM has pledged to repeal New York's
law, as it has in California and Maine. However, those early
successes may be coming undone. California's gay marriage ban,
Proposition 8, has been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge
and proponents
in Maine are readying a voter initiative that if approved would
legalize gay marriage in the state.