Anti-Gay Marriage Group Spends $5M On Elections

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign and the Courage Campaign released a report card on the political activities of the so-called, anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) that shows a mixed outcome this election cycle despite pouring an estimated $5 million into federal and state campaigns in the 2009-2010 election cycles. NOM endorsed at least 29 candidates in the midterm election and as of today, it had lost 19 of those races.

"NOM has emerged in the last two election cycles as the leading fringe, anti-gay political force in the country," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "It's clear they will stop at nothing, including repeatedly ignoring state campaign finance laws to elect anti-gay candidates and punish elected pro-equality officials. And nothing illustrates NOM's cynicism more than the defeat of three Supreme Court justices in Iowa who were part of a unanimous decision that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. An independent judiciary is now threatened and no organization is more responsible for that than NOM."

"The rejection of most of NOM's candidates shows the growing support for LGBT equality across the political spectrum, and just how out of touch NOM's extremism is with the bread and butter concerns of everyday Americans," said Courage Campaign Founder and Chairman Rick Jacobs. "Considering the national political environment, NOM's support was undeniably toxic for many candidates, and NOM's focus on intimidating judges, attacking families and flouting tax and election laws tells us why."

The full report on NOM and the win/loss record for its races can be found http://nomexposed.org/nom-election-scorecard.

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The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

The Courage Campaign is a multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across America. Its ongoing equality initiatives include "Testimony", a nationwide public education campaign that's bringing the Prop 8 trial and the stories of affected families into the lives of everyday Americans and the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, a courtroom live-blog, news and commentary site which has generated more than 3 million visits and 75,000 comments to date.