National Organization for Marriage Faces IRS Probe

Press release from Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate:

WASHINGTON, DC – Right on the heels of last week’s vote on gay marriage in the New York State Senate, Maggie Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage could well be facing its 3^rd investigation into its 2 year old operation.

In an IRS letter recently received by Ben Katzenberg on behalf of Californians Against Hate (letter below or CLICK HERE), Sunita Lough, Director, EO Examinations said, “Thank you for the information you submitted regarding the National Organization for Marriage PAC New York. The Internal Revenue Service has an ongoing examination program to ensure that exempt organizations comply with the applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code…. Internal Revenue Code section 6103 protects the privacy of tax returns and tax return information of all taxpayers. Therefore, we cannot disclose the status of any investigation.”

NOM is already the subject of investigations in California and Maine. Both complaints were filed by Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate. The California investigation (Case #08/735) is in its 2^nd year. That investigation covers the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) and NOM for not reporting in-kind expenditures on behalf of the Yes on Prop 8 campaign.

The Maine investigation began when that state’s Ethics Commission voted on October 1, 2009 to investigate NOM for not filing as a PAC in the recent election there to ban same-sex marriage. NOM should have filed as a PAC when it raised $5,000. It raised well over $1.8 million, and still refused to file as required under Maine elevation law.

“In Maine they refused to release the names of their donors, even after Federal Judge D. Brock Hornby and Maine State Attorney General Janet Mills ordered them to,” said Karger. This type of blatant disregard for the law is inconceivable. NOM is not above the law.”

“Soon Maggie Gallagher and her sidekick, Brian Brown (NOM executive director) are going to get caught.”

“NOM has spent nearly $20 million around the country in the past 2 years in at least 11 states, but apparently does not believe in following either state or federal laws.”

“Additionally, no one has yet to see any federal reporting by NOM of its National Organization for Marriage Educational Fund. This is their 501(c)3 charitable organization. There is no telling how many more millions of dollars they have raised and spent through this entity. It was formed in 2008, and their filings should have been available to the public well before now. We have requested this information from the IRS and have not received it as of today.”

“NOM’s 501(c)4 finally released its required 990 tax filings for 2007 and 2008 over one year late, and only after repeated requests were filed with the IRS by our organization and several other media outlets.”

“The Congress of the Untied States should launch an official investigation of the National Organization for Marriage at once,” concluded Karger.

NOM is believed to be a front group for the Mormon Church. See our web site www.Mormongate.com for details.

Karger has been subpoenaed by the Yes on 8 campaign and NOM in an effort to get him to surrender all his documentation against them so they can argue their case in the lawsuit brought by the Proposition 8 campaign against California's election officials.

Karger has had to get legal representation but it will cost a lot of money, money he does not have. For the first time ever, he's asking for support and has launched FiveforFred.com. $5 per person, the cost of a latte (plus tip) could help him cover his lawyer's fees.

Maine News Roundup: NOM Tries to Squirm Out of Investigation; Catholic Church Contributes Over Half a Million and More

NOM Sues Another State to Get Out of Another Investigation

As I reported yesterday, the uber anti-marriage equality National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is yet again trying to squirm out of another investigation by pitching a tantrum aka filing a lawsuit.

NOM filed a lawsuit against state officials in California who decided, thanks to the efforts of Frank Karger of Californians Against Hate, to investigate them for their involvement in the passage of Prop 8.

Karger also led the charge against NOM for their involvement in Maine. Danielle Truszkovsky of the South Florida Blade has written an amazing piece describing the Maine Ethics Commission hearing that led to the investigation.

Now Kevin Miller of the Bangor Daily News in Maine has written a follow-up on yesterday's breaking news about Washington DC-based NOM's lawsuit against Maine and how they don't like the way things are ran there.

Now, the organization has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bangor alleging that Maine’s financial reporting requirements are unconstitutional.


The lawsuit seeks a court injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing a law that NOM officials claim is being used to harass and intimidate opponents of gay marriage.


“The reporting requirements become onerous and burdensome, especially when you are working in several states, and are an infringement of free speech,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s executive director.


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Brown argued in an interview Thursday that the reporting requirements — which include registering as a ballot question committee, appointing a treasurer and keeping detailed records for four years — are an undue burden. He also described Maine’s law as legally unclear and “patently unconstitutional” because it prohibited or discouraged free speech in the form of advocacy on one side of an issue.


He also accused the Ethics Commission members and Karger of waging a politically motivated “witch hunt,” despite the fact that the vote to order an investigation was bipartisan.


“What we are basically doing is filing a lawsuit to make clear our First Amendment rights to free speech,” Brown said. He also said that some donors to NOM during the California campaign later were harassed and threatened.

Mike Tidmus put it best on his blog, "It appears Brown will tolerate no sunshine in the Pine Tree State if telling the truth — the whole truth — and complying with the law makes his and cohort Maggie Gallagher’s lives more difficult … and expensive."

I have to agree. It's not very bright of Brian Brown to come charging into stay-out-of-our-business Maine and telling them that how they do things is wrong. But then again, Brown isn't known for being all that brilliant.

The Catholic Church of Maine Donates Over Half a Million to Yes on 1

The AP reports:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has given another $152,600 to the group that's trying to overturn Maine's gay-marriage law.


A spokeswoman said the new contributions were transferred from a "rainy day" fund to the Stand for Marriage Maine political action committee.


That brings total Roman Catholic contributions to more than $550,000. That includes more than $180,000 from the Diocese of Portland, $141,300 from individual parishioners in Maine and $214,000 from other dioceses and bishops across the U.S.

This is mind-boggling. They have recently closed three parishes in Maine due to lack of funds (resulting in low attendance), but instead of using their "rainy day" fund to save them, they instead use it to strip rights away of fellow citizens because they don't like how they live their private lives.

What the f*** is a rainy day fund for if it's not to save your own churches?

Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments were, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31)

The Catholic Church is violating the second greatest commandment and forgetting about feeding the poor. And don't get me started on speculating about where the money may be coming from.

I will end by reminding the church about this - "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10-12)

The Lack of Logic in Yes on 1's Arguments

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight has written a great post about the lack of any sense found in Yes on 1's arguments against marriage equality.

He's posted about the talking points that the campaign sent out and has paraphrased them as such.

1. The new law won't make gay marriage equal to straight marriage. Instead, it will create a new kind of marriage in which gay people and straight people are equal.
2. Although we may not have proven any connection between gay marriage and public education, our opponents haven't disproven the connection, and it's their fault that the subject came up.
3. If gay marriage is upheld, then marriage will exist solely to make people happy.


These arguments run from the literally incoherent (#1) to the sublimely unpersuasive (#3), with #2 somewhere in between. Yet, they are, apparently, the best arguments that the Yes on 1 folks can muster -- the ones they're using to close out their campaign.

He goes on to remind us that Maine is one of the least religious states, so Yes on 1 has had to hammer home the lie about same-sex marriage being taught in schools. He says this argument has been discredited. And it has. But unfortunately, the harm has already been done.

NO on 1/Protect Marriage Equality can still lead Maine through a historic win for marriage equality. GET INVOLVED!

ACTION: Here are the different ways you can get involved.

1. If you live far from Maine but are eager to make a difference, you can phone bank from home. Sign up at Call for Equality.
2. If you do live near Maine, go to Drive for Equality, where you can look for carpools in your area headed up to the Pine Tree State so you can volunteer and help Get Out the Vote!
3. If you actually live in Maine, VOTE EARLY! Not only will the NO on 1 campaign see a record of your vote, it will free you up on election day to help get supporters to the polls.
4. DONATE! You can do this no matter where you live.

Californians Against Hate Accuses Maine Anti-Marriage Equality Campaign of Money Laundering, Calling NOM Front for Mormon Church

Californians Against Hate founder Fred Karger has formally asked Maine election officials to investigate anti-marriage equality campaign Stand For Marriage Maine. He accuses the campaign of money laundering and lists specific allegations, the details which were requested by the officials after he initially contacted them.

In a letter to election official Jonathan Wayne, Karger wrote that, "These entities are laundering money to evade the disclosure of the actual contributors to Stand for Marriage Maine."

"The four organizational donors that gave to Stand for Marriage Maine, with the possible exception of Focus on the Family, circumvented Maine’s campaign reporting law to avoid disclosure of the true contributors."

Karger goes on to list the organizations as the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), Dioeces of Portland, Knights of Columbus, and Focus on the Family. In the letter, he details his allegations about how the groups have hidden where the donations are coming from to avoid identities being revealed and violating laws regarding churches donating past maximum amounts.

The group's first financial disclosure report raised even more suspicions when it listed total contributions from individual donors at a paltry $400 out of $343,689.50 reported.

“By way of comparison,” Karger says, “last year, the Protect Marriage, Yes on Proposition 8 campaign in California disclosed more than 60,000 individual contributors of $100 and above. Thousands more contributed under that amount to repeal same-sex marriage in that state.”

Pam's House Blend reports that a reader has also had enough and has asked the IRS to investigate NOM.

Karger asked Maine's ethics commission to consider his request at their September 8 meeting, but the commission is likely to decide on the matter in October, its executive director Jonathan Wayne told the Associated Press.

Wayne has asked Stand for Marriage Maine to respond to Karger's allegations by September 16.

Maine Becomes Marriage Equality Ground Zero As Campaign Funds and Accusations Increase

This November Maine is considered ground zero for the marriage equality struggle since its residents will be the first in the nation to vote on same-sex marriage since Proposition 8. With the vote only a few months away, the campaigns on both sides of the issue are kicking into high gear as not only more money flows, but accusations as well.

On Friday, Equality California (EQCA) launched a fundraising drive in which it will match donations to the NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign up to $25,000.

The Human Rights Campaign, gave $50,000 to NO on 1, on top of $25,000 it gave earlier, totaling to $75,000. HRC has committed to donating yet another $50,000 soon, resulting in $125,000 in total donations.

These "outsider" donations angered Stand for Marriage Maine, the anti-marriage equality campaign orchestrating the "people's veto."

"Stand for Marriage Maine's (SFMM) opposition has constructed a glass house, claiming their campaign is being orchestrated by Mainers, not special interest groups from away," the campaign said. "The Equality California announcement would seem to roll a boulder right through that glass house."

The popular Maine newspaper, the Kennebec Journal, pointed out the hypocrisy in SFMM's statement. In talking to Mark Sullivan, spokesman for NO on 1, it reported, "Sullivan noted that Stand for Marriage Maine had already received more than $200,000 from out-of-state groups, according to campaign finance reports filed last month."

One of those groups happens to be the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), well-known for its anti-marriage equality stance and responsible for the widely mocked "Gathering Storm" ad. They donated over $100,000.

This didn't escape the notice of Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, whose mission has to been to investigate the role of the Mormon Church behind Proposition 8. It has claimed that NOM is a front for the church.

Karger sent a letter Maine election officials, and in a press release titled "Warning of Money Laundering by National Organization for Marriage (NOM) & Others," he states:

The organization trying to overturn Maine’s same-sex marriage law, Stand for Marriage PAC recently turned in 100,000 signatures to place the question on the November ballot. These gay marriage foes hope to repeal LD 1020 -- the law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor allowing same-sex marriage in Maine.

Of the $343,689.50 raised to pay the Brighton, Michigan based National Petition Management, Inc. to collect the signatures, only $400, or a mere .001 of that total came from individuals. The remaining $343,289.50 was given by various religious organizations and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) gave nearly half of that total, $160,000. The remainder came from Catholic organizations ($150,000) and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family ($31,000).“It sure looks like they are trying to hide the donors in their latest effort to strip away marriage equality,” said Fred Karger. “ There is no way these organizations like NOM and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland had all this money sitting in their treasuries (except for possibly Focus on the Family). They went out and raised it expressly for this campaign. It’s very expensive to hire these signature gathering firms to collect 100,000 signatures in a short period of time.”

Read the letter to Maine's election officials.

"We certainly don't take much of it very seriously," Marc Mutty, chairman of Stand for Marriage Maine's executive committee, told the Kennebec Journal in regards to Californians Against Hate's accusations. "We are frustrated at the fact that it's yet one more distraction."

Mutty went on to say that he sees Karger's actions as just a way of blurring the issues on marriage equality.

Election officials have taken the letter as a request for an investigation, and the state's attorney general's spokesperson indicated assistance would be given to the ethics committee if an investigation is warranted.

Find out how you can get more involved in protecting marriage equality in Maine, no matter where you live, at the NO on 1 campaign website.

Manchester Hyatt Caving in to Boycott?

"Papa Doug" Doug Manchester, chairman of Manchester Financial Group and owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego and the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, among other properties, donated $125,000 to support the signature drive that got Prop 8 on the ballot. As a result, Californians Against Hate has staged a successful boycott along with Cleve Jones and the Courage Campaign.

Kelly Cummerford, director of sales for Manchester Grand Hyatt, and who himself is gay, was met with boos and hisses as he went up to announce at Friday's International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association convention in Toronto, that Manchester was donating $25,000 directly to LGBT civil rights groups and another $100,000 in hotel credits for LGBT fund-raising events.

Howard Bragman, the openly gay public relations/crisis management veteran who was hired by former Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington after reportedly directing an antigay slur at costar T.R. Knight, told The Advocate that "Mr. Manchester’s beliefs were clearly misconstrued. He did give $125,000 to Yes on 8 and he is opposed to the concept of religious gay marriage. However, he is in no way homophobic and is 100% in favor of gay people having every legal right that straight people have. This is an attempt to clarify his position."

Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate dismissed this statement.

"It’s an insult to the gay and lesbian community and our labor allies that he is attempting after 10 months to go around us and buy his way out of this boycott," Karger related to the Advocate. "Manchester told [Cummerford] that he had lost $7 million due to this boycott. If that is the number he admits to, then I assume it is a lot higher. Our boycott has been very effective. For example, the latest blow is the National Trial Lawyers Association, who just announced that they were moving their convention of 2,000 lawyers not only from Manchester's hotel but from San Diego entirely. Their event is in July and they are moving to San Francisco, so at great expense to them, in order to show solidarity."

Though the money was offered to the HRC, they declined to accept it.

"In either case it's a divide-and-conquer attempt," Karger said. He added, "It is a step but this is not the way a boycott is ended. And though we would be happy to sit down with him at anytime to discuss this, until then our boycott will continue with more resolve."

Read related Unite the Fight piece by Boo Jarchow, reporter for The Advocate and SheWired.com: "LGBT Rights Activists Demand an End to 'Hyatt Hypocrisy.'"

Read Fred Karger's full statement at MikeTidmus.com.

Californians Against Hate Ad Campaign Counters NOM Ads in New England

Californians Against Hate (CAH) are launching their own ad campaign in the US Northeast to counter the NOM ads that ran in the region with their anti-gay messages.

“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."

In reference to the 234th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride, the CAH ads rewrote Longfellow’s famous poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” which contains the famous refrain "The British are coming!" and have reworked it to read, "The Mormons are coming!"

“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 comes primarily from the Mormon Church and its members.”


“We want all fair-minded people to know who is behind NOM’s effort to stop equal rights," ads Karger. "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 ads launched April 18th.

Californians Against Hate launch new site

Check it out here.

Dedicated to drawing attention to the major donors of the Yes on 8 campaign, they're a great source of information. If you hear rumors about who donated and who didn't, you can go here to verify.

Note: this is a relaunch of the site. And by the way, check out their campaign section near the top.