New National Religious Right Group Attacks Pro-Marriage Equality MA State Legislator
At issue is Pupplo's vote last June not to allow a state constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage to appear on the ballot in 2008. Titled "BETRAYED," the billboard has a vibrant yellow background and features illustrations - one depicting Jesus being betrayed by Judas, one of Benedict Arnold -- and a photo of Angelo Puppolo. "Tactics like this reinforce my belief that I did the right thing," Puppolo told The Springfield Republican. "I voted to keep discrimination off the ballot and out of the Massachusetts constitution."
"It's unfortunate that small-minded groups like this from out of the area come in and spread this kind of hate and inflammatory statements," he said. Earlier this year, the religious right and Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts failed in their effort to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. At issue, was marriage equality for same sex couples which has been legal in Massachusetts since 2004. The long arm of Dobson reached into the state via his Bay State proxy, the Massachusetts Family Institute, which led the effort to get the amendment on the ballot. The effort came up five votes short in the state legislature, in part because a number of legislators changed their minds -- including Puppolo. And now a national organization has been created to attack pro marriage equality state legislators in what they term "difficult states." (By this we may mean, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachussetts, California, New York and New Jersey.) Puppolo is the first of eleven MA state legislators expected to be targeted by a new New Jersey-based national group called the National Organization for Marriage. It is headed by Brian S. Brown, the former head of the James Dobson's Connecticut political affiliate, the Family Institute of Connecticut. In a blog post earlier this year Brown bragged that the Family Institute of Connecticut
...has defeated every attempt to pass a same-sex "marriage" law in Connecticut-and that we have become one of the leading voices for religious liberty in the "Constitution State." He then explained: Effective August 1st I will become the executive director of a new group: the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). I am joining Maggie Gallagher, one of the leading pro-family voices in the country, to fill a gap in our national efforts to protect marriage and defend the family. NOM's focus will be in fighting same-sex marriage in the most difficult states, to help candidates that support marriage, and to defeat those candidates that are working to undermine and redefine it. The Massachusetts Family Institute and the Family Institute of Connecticut are part of a national network of Focus on the Family affiliated state-level think tanks and political operations that have generally taken the lead in promoting antigay ballot initiatives around the country in recent years. Rep. Puppolo, as a freshman state representative, would probably have been targeted by the state GOP as a potentially vulnerable seat -- but now it is apparent that the national religious right has him in their crosshairs as well. And while it is not yet clear how much oomph NOM will have, (their web site is "under construction") it is not unreasonable to think that they will be able to raise enough money to at least do things like this, and it is also reasonable to think that the religious right will be doing everything they can to keep marriage equality as contentious an issue as they can heading into 2008. Meanwhile, Angelo Puppolo is asking for our help, and has a few initial suggestions.
"The billboard... is very large and placed strategically on I-91 Southbound. Lamar Advertising owns the board and took the order from an out of state group from New Jersey - Lamar's number is 860-246-6546 in case anyone should feel the desire to call and let Lamar know what you think of the distasteful billboard."
I would appreciate any help that anyone is willing to offer - please send me your name and contact information if you want to volunteer on my campaign - also anyone that wants to send my campaign committee a donation - I would appreciate that very much the committee address is: Online contributions can be made here:
New National Religious Right Group Attacks Pro-Marriage Equality MA State Legislator | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
New National Religious Right Group Attacks Pro-Marriage Equality MA State Legislator | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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