All right, TWO team: so in case you’ve been vacationing on Mars these past few months, New York state is a hairsbreadth from legalizing marriage equality. Of course, the anti-LGBT religious wingnuts over at the National Organization for (Discrimination in) Marriage, along with that state’s Catholic hierarchy, are working overtime to prevent that from happening.

And now it’s crunch time. The Marriage Equality Act is currently stalled in the Senate, whose legislative session was supposed to end today. However, voting on the Act has been postponed until tomorrow at the earliest. NOM just put out an “emergency alert” asking marriage equality opponents to flood key senate offices with calls opposing the Act and calling instead for another public referendum on basic rights.

Well, Maggie, two can play at that game. I visited NOM’s website so you don’t have to (you can thank me later) and pulled their list of targeted senators. The list is below. New Yorkers: please call every senator on this list and tell them to stand for justice for ALL by voting to pass the Marriage Equality Act (and if you’re in the Albany area, please strongly consider joining New Yorkers United for Marriage at a noon rally outside the Capitol).

Stephen Saland (518) 455-2411
Andrew Lanza (518) 455-3215
Mark Grisanti (518) 455-3240
Greg Ball (518) 455-3111
John Flanagan (518) 455-2071
Joseph Addabbo (518) 455-2322
Shirley Huntley (518) 455-3531

[h/t Alvin, via Facebook]

Recent protests in Albany and Providence spotlighted a stark difference in strategies among supporters of marriage equality.

Having lost civil public debates over the supposed merit of its immoral bigotry, the antigay National Organization for Marriage resorted this summer to a low-budget bus tour to state capitals: a tour whose sole intent appears to be to muster self-pity and victimhood among bigots who believe that discrimination, heterosexual adultery, and conservative Catholic pedophilia qualify as “Christian values.”

At one of the tour’s stops in Albany, New York, state and local equality advocates coordinated a creative counterdemonstration featuring rainbow umbrellas and white shirts with heart symbols that expressed the love that is at the core of the quest for marriage equality.

Days later, a larger and more energetic counterdemonstration featured one of the state’s smaller, more aggressive activist groups working with out-of-state allies. (The state’s largest equality group, Marriage Equality Rhode Island, did not participate.) Demonstrators confronted the antigay bigots with shouting matches and with noisemaker bottles that were filled with pebbles.

After the Albany protest, NOM humiliated itself with the feeble complaint that a rainbow umbrella had blocked one bigoted woman’s view. After the Providence protest, however, it seemed that NOM had exactly what it wanted: Video footage of uncivil homosexuals intimidating supposed victims of marriage equality.

Michael Crawford of Freedom to Marry on July 23 voiced concerns about the result of the Providence protest.

With their anti-gay summer tour, NOM is hoping to add to their false narrative of victimization. By holding events in communities across the country, NOM is hoping to evoke outrage and confrontation with supporters of the freedom to marry. Their latest propaganda video as a perfect example:

We can’t let anger get the best of us and feed into NOM’s false narrative that they will then use against us in court rooms and legislatures across the country. We must funnel our anger against anti-gay forces like NOM into constructive actions that will educate the public and move marriage forward.

Given the uncivil and untruthful tactics that NOM and its allies have used against equality advocates, anger and intimidation by equality advocates may seem justified.

However, in the struggle for the right to love equally, does it make sense to fight NOM’s deceit with anger rather than love? Is it wise to fight for our freedom by shouting down others the same way we have been shouted down by Exodus International and its allies in the past?

Is there a way to combine the energy of the Providence protest with the optimism and hope of the Albany protest?

We congratulate upstate New Yorkers today for their phenomenal demonstration of love and peace in contrast to the fear and prejudice of the National Organization for (Heterosexual Christian-Only) Marriage.

Approximately 70 supporters of marriage equality rallied at the government center adjacent to the state Capitol in Albany, and then held a silent vigil surrounding NOM’s declaration of political warfare against the state’s gay couples.

Instead of countering NOM’s fear and anger with more of the same, our side held rainbow umbrellas held aloft and wore shirts which boldly asked, “Do you see our love?”

Please thank — and support! — the following organizations for this creative and positive expression of affirmation for marriage equality:

Marriage Equality New York
In Our Own Voices
Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Council
Albany Queer Rising
HomoRadio on WRPI 91.5fm
Empire State Pride Agenda
Freedom to Marry
Courage Campaign
Social Responsibilities Council of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany
Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood
Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club (ERDC)
New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Capital Region Chapter
Albany Law School Civil Liberties Union
Choices Counseling & Consulting/The Institute for Gender, Relationships, Identity & Sexuality
GAES Magazine: Gay Arts, Entertainment & Lifestyle
The Women’s Building
Christians Responding with Equality, Diversity and Openness (CREDO) of the Capital District
National Organization for Women (NOW) Albany Area Chapter
Capital District Area Labor Federation

Source: Courage Campaign

Addendum: NOM supporter exemplifies anger, fear and prejudice