Californians Against Hate Kicks Off Ad Campaign in 6 Northeast States
"The Mormons are Coming, The Mormons are Coming!"
Designed to counter the commercial released 10 days ago by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) "A Gathering Storm," Californians Against Hate launched its own advertising campaign beginning over the weekend in: New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island and Maine.
"We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) established the National Organization for Marriage as its front group in order to qualify Proposition 8 for ballot last year in California," said Fred Karger, Founder of Californians Against Hate. "After spending several million dollars in California, NOM recently moved into 7 Northeast States considering marriage equality.
They lost in Vermont on April 7th, when the Legislature voted to override Governor Jim Douglas' veto the very next day. Vermont became the 4th state in the nation to allow same-sex couples the right to marry.
NOM was very active in Vermont, paying for a massive advertising campaign, including radio, direct mail and robo-calling everyone in the state with a recorded message. Political experts think that their heavy--handed tactics backfired, and they lost because of it. Now NOM is charging into 6 more Northeast states.
On April 18th, on the 234th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride from Boston to Lexington, we began our online advertising campaign. Our ad harkens back to 1775 when a brave Paul Revere rode his horse to warn of the attack by the British. We wrote our own version of Longfellow's famous poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," entitled, "The Mormons are Coming, The Mormons are Coming!" It's easy to find and enjoy. It's up on our web site: www.Mormongate.com
"Our modern day Paul Revere is warning of TV commercials (using bad actors trying to play real people), radio ads, and robo--calls -- all full of deceit and lies," said Fred Karger. "Their ads are fueled by millions of dollars, which we believe primarily come from the Mormon Church and its members. They set up NOM as a front group in California in the summer of 2007 to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot, after 2 previous attempts to put a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage before the voters failed in 2006. I am very familiar with the National Organization for Marriage and its president, Maggie Gallagher. I sparred with them a lot last year in California."
"The ad that we are running is meant to be strong, but lighthearted, "added Karger. "We want all fair-minded people to know who is behind NOM's effort to stop equal rights. We will continue to pound away at this front group until everyone knows exactly who is behind the creation of the National Organization for Marriage."
The Mormon Church has been fighting same-sex marriage this way since 1995, when it set up Hawaii's Future Today to fight gay marriage in that state. Mormon Church documents that we received recently show just how the Church operates. To see these documents go to our web site.
For the full text of the banner ads and accompanying poem, please visit our web site: www.Mormongate.com.