‘Drive A Wedge Between Gays And Blacks’

We get an unvarnished look at the National Organization for Marriage from internal strategy memos posted online as part of a court case in Maine. The documents include things like NOM’s, “Marriage: $20 Million Strategy for Victory.”

Here, via Alvin McEwen of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, is one aspect of that “strategy for victory”:

3. Not a Civil Right Project

The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.

My, what lovely “strategic goals” you have, there, Maggie.

Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin also sifts through the newly released NOM documents, highlighting a NOM project to portray President Barack Obama as a “radical socialist.”

This is from an August 2009 document from NOM:

Expose Obama as a social radical. Develop side issues to weaken pro-gay marriage political leaders and parties and develop an activist hase of socially conservative voters. Raise such issues as pornography, protection of children, and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at teh federal level. This is the mission of the American Principles Project. …

So the supposedly non-partisan NOM was actively campaigning against Obama’s re-election seven months into his first term.

The Human Rights Campaign is collecting the newly public documents from NOM at its NOM Exposed site.

Update, see also: