Protecting marriage

An video ad by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) highlighting the harmful consequences of gay marriage was hardly an advertisement for the intelligence of its makers. The 30-second spot warns that students will be taught "that boys can marry other boys" or could be taken to a same-sex wedding as a field trip if gay marriage becomes legalized.

The final frame urges voters in New York, where a same-sex marriage bill recently passed through the state assembly, to contact their senators. "SAY NO TO SAME SAME SEX MARRAIGE," it urges. This pro-gay marriage blog caught the two typos before NOM fixed them. “And we’re the ones who threaten school kids?!?!” one of the site’s bloggers wrote.

NOM's president is Maggie Gallagher, a Catholic marriage activist who also is president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, whose goal is "strengthening marriage for a new generation." She is a frequent commentator on TV and radio, arguing against same-sex marriage. In 2005 the Washington Post reported that Gallagher had received money from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2002 to write, among other things, an article promoting the Bush administration's $300 million marriage initiative in the conservative Catholic magazine, Crisis, under the byline of Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. She later apologized for not disclosing the payment, which many saw as a breech of journalistic ethics.