"expanding our online activist community"

So you've got more people bitching on forums? Congrats!

I am reading the book "Nixonland" and this is the type of strategy that Nixon employed rather effectively in the 1960's to rise inside the GOP.

It's a petty method of doing things but it does work.

Actually Dan, I think you have a point here. The chances appear to be good NOM isn't going to pull in much more than a couple dozen supporters at any given event, so really the only thing the media has to cover is the counter-protest. And of course you're correct that NOM simply points at the disparity in numbers and uses that to slap down the "VICTIM!" card at every opportunity.

Take that away from them and you not only prevent them from playing said card, but you gain the additional advantage of removing anything of interest to the media, which in turn means NOM no longer gets any significant press attention, which clearly, they desperately need in order to maintain any sense of forward momentum.

(And which is not to say there shouldn't be at least ONE person there recording the event, if only to prevent NOM from making unsubstantiated claims of "thousands showing up to our rally in Podunk Falls" or wherever, which they no doubt will do, once they realize the media isn't there to call bullshit on their attendance figures.)

Keep showing up at the rallies! In reality, no one really likes an embattled little minority, or wants to be part of one. NOM might think look pathetic will win them sympathy and cash from people as crazy as they are, but it won't win them "protection" for their precious straight relationships!

@2 Yes, it certainly does, and especially with that community. Nothing energizes and motivates conservative religious bigots more than a persecution complex. The best counter-strategy is nust ignore, ignore, and ignore some more.

NOM sounds like the Seattle City Council.

NOM is beginning to sound like Fred Phelps, et al. they should join forces.

NOM- when you throw a stick at a beehive expect to get stung...

(and by beehive I don't mean a hairdo)...

Word

Maybe they'll show videos of scary protesters against a background of gathering storm clouds. Of course you realize that if no protesters shows up at their rallys, they'll probably hire some. They put actors in their TV ads, and plastered stock pictures of models posing as families on their bus. You think they wouldn't hire scary gay protesters too? Oh...but we'll Uncover their deception and that will Make Them Look Bad. Except they don't care. They just dropped a million dollars on a race in California like it was pocket change.

Instead of imploring people not to show up, how about imploring everyone who shows up to bring a camera, and document everything, especially the NOM supporters who Do show up. One showed up with a sign calling for the death penalty for homosexuality. Another apparently slugged a female counter-protester in the stomach.

And...who in the gay news media is working on digging up where their money is coming from?

Shouldn't they be called the National Organization Against Marriage?

@10 Actually, very bad homo, I prefer
Irretrievable Fuckwits. Don't you think that has a better ring to it?

Today Maggie Gallagher posted this about the kids protesting at NOM rallies:

The protesters I can see are mostly young, and caught up in the drama in their mind. If they are to be the moral heroes, who is the villain? In their own heads, these young folks are joining a great civil rights drama. They missed the original civil rights movement, they missed the sixties, the sexual revolution even is just old hat, something their mamas did. This is their moment, here on the streets of Indianapolis, or Columbus, or Lima, or Madison, this is their Selma.

Meanwhile, at the NOM rally in St. Paul, Brian Brown said this:

We’ve taken great pains to make clear what we’re all about. We view ourselves as a new civil rights movement…. committed to something that in the 1960s was key: the right to vote.

Links:
http://nomblog.com/1296/
http://www.marriagetour2010.com/2010/07/…

So NOM is basically pulling a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ma…

Given how easy they are to debunk, how easily mockable, and how deeply pathetic they are, I think drawing attention to NOM is a good strategy, especially if it draws attention away from haters with more finesse. Calling attention to their tactic of playing the victim when they are being treated with all reasonable civility is smart, too. Of course, the fact that they are able to present themselves as the underdog with any plausibility at all is an indication that, as Dan says, we are winning. I predict that by 2020, most states will have marriage equality, and by 2030, the Supreme Court will force the laggards to catch up, making the whole nation marriage-equal.

@10: Hey, Noam is my sister's name! Find another acronym!

Political jujitsu? More like punching oneself in the face and then complaining that someone hit you.

@15: Small difference: gays actually ARE persecuted by various elements of society. NOM et al. just pretend that everyone's mean to them so that they can get sympathy that they don't deserve. They're really just whiny attention whores, whereas gays actually have legitimate grievances.

@16: It's a Hebrew name, you ignorant fuckwit.

@15 The difference being that gay people are 'picked on'. Blow hard Christians, on the other hand, dominate politics