Anti-gay activist: People didn’t turn up to my rally because they’re at home ‘grieving’ for marriage
Less than 300 people turned up to a Washington DC rally opposing same-sex marriage, as the hardline anti-gay lobby slowly dies out.
The National Organization for Marriage held a rally in DC on Saturday, to protest the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
As the main opposition lobby to equal marriage in the US, NOM’s rallies before the SCOTUS ruling had drawn crowds of thousands – with the support of church groups, a well-funded campaign to bus in protesters, and heavyweight speakers from the Republican Party.
But that was definitely not the case at Saturday’s rally, with ThinkProgress hand-counting the diminutive crowd and finding less than 250 people attending.
Zack Ford on Twitter
The liberal website’s editor Zack Ford, who reported from the rally wrote: “The dearth of attendees could symbolize how defeated conservatives feel by Obergefell.
“NOM President Brian Brown called for overturning Obergefell, but offered no ideas for how that would even be legally possible.
“Other speakers emphasised the need for wedding vendors to be able to discriminate against same-sex couples, seemingly giving up on the idea of actually banning same-sex marriage ever again.”
In a message to supporters seen by PinkNews, Mr Brown claimed the rally was a “huge success”, claiming double the independent headcount and sharing tightly-cropped photos to disguise the lack of a large crowd.
He wrote: “I’m writing with great news — the 2016 March for Marriage this past Saturday in Washington was a tremendous success!
“We had about 400 people join us at the rally and march and they were an enthusiastic and inspiring group of supporters!
“Many families came together to march. One family I spoke with drove down from Philadelphia.
“Another family came from Long Island. We had people join us from as far away as Utah and California.
“I met people from throughout the north east and the south. One supporter even came from Sri Lanka to be with us! In short it was a great event!”
He insisted: “We expected that the crowd would be smaller than past marches because people are still grieving from the US Supreme Court’s illegitimate decision redefining marriage.
“But continuing the March for Marriage gives supporters of marriage an important event to rally around and come to realize that they are not alone in supporting marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
“So like the annual March for Life, we are very confident that as word spreads, the size of the march will continue to grow every year going forward.”
NOM remains active despite financial woes, missing major fundraising targets and facing federal tax complaints.
In a separate email seen by PinkNews, Brown confessed NOM is facing financial oblivion following the loss of key donors.
He said: “I just met with my team and learned we are seriously behind our fundraising goals for the first half of the year.
“I have to be honest, we’ve never been in a bigger hole and I am freaking out. In the past, we had reserves saved up to help cushion a shortfall, but our reserves are gone.”
Despite claiming to be a group that is simply opposed to equal marriage, President Brian Brown revealed his true beliefs in an email after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away.
In the email seen by PinkNews, Brown referred not just to rulings on same-sex marriage, but cases relating to sodomy laws across the US – expressing clear support for the now-defunct laws criminalising gay sex.
