Maggie Gallagher On The HRC

"To anyone who has been at the forefront of the marriage fight, there is little new in the extraordinary effort to punish a whole law firm because HRC doesn't like its client. Gay marriage advocates have again and again used class networks of power to attack individuals, livelihoods and whole business enterprises to make support for marriage so expensive that they can effectively silence opposition to their views. But this time it happened in full public view.

"In a truly Orwellian statement, HRC President Joe Solmonese praised King and Spalding's decision to abandon a client under fire as an example of putting 'principle above politics.' Oh Joe, oh Joe. It's important for all of us to remember that life for ordinary gay people can still be difficult, even as a powerhouse gay movement flexes its cultural, financial and behind-the-scenes political power to repress the rights of others to organize, speak, donate and now hire a lawyer to defend marriage. One thing is clear: This is not a movement that needs extraordinary intervention by the courts to protect its rights." - NOM chairman Maggie Gallagher, writing for Yahoo News.

Andrew Sullivan On King & Spaulding

"To put pressure on lawyers defending clients or laws because lobby groups don't like them is deeply illiberal. It remains disgusting, for example, that rightwing groups targeted lawyers defending terror suspects and Gitmo prisoners. When the far right did this, it was despicable. Now that the left is doing it, it remains just as despicable.

"Memo to the gay rights leadership: the ends do not justify the means. Let DOMA have the most robust defense it can possibly muster and let us argue just as passionately for its unconstitutionality. When civil rights groups bully, they lose the moral high-ground. When you have men like David Brock leading the charge - and there are no means he has ever eschewed to achieve his ends - the danger is that we prove the far right's point. We must be better than them." - Andrew Sullivan, writing for Daily Beast.

Bill T. Jones For New York Marriage

Maggie Gallagher's Pissed At The HRC

"Is everyone entitled to a lawyer? Not in HRC's eyes. HRC is openly attempting to hurt an entire law firm, because one of its lawyers took on a client HRC does not like: the House's defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. This kind of thing has been done behind the scenes many times--the use of class power behind the scenes to punish those who disagree with HRC on marriage. (I just spoke to the wife of a litigator in San Francisco who lost his job--was denied a partnership--because he donated to Prop 8.) But this is even worse, and very public: the attempt to punish an entire business enterprise because a lawyer defends what is in HRC's eyes an unpopular client. Will the legal culture permit HRC to tell it who can hire a lawyer? We'll see." - Maggie Gallagher, writing for NOM's blog.

View the HRC's campaign against King & Spalding.

NEW YORK: Gay Rights Group Unite On Concentrated Push For Marriage

A coalition of LGBT rights group has formed to make a concentrated push for marriage equality in New York state. Via press release:

New Yorkers United for Marriage, an unprecedented alliance that includes Empire State Pride Agenda, Freedom to M arry, Human Rights Campaign and Marriage Equality New York will build on the growing momentum for marriage and groundwork already laid across the state - with the goal of enacting a bill before the end of the current legislative session. "Today, we stand closer than ever to allowing all loving, committed couples to legally marry here in New York," said Ross Levi, Executive Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. "We've sent a loud and clear message during the last two years that supporting the LGBT community isn't just the right thing to do, but it's also good politics, and this unprecedented coalition will amplify that message.”

The New York Times reports that the coalition is being led by the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Under the supervision of the governor’s staff, the groups intend to raise more than $1 million for a media blitz, hire a powerful political consultant close to the Cuomo administration and deploy field organizers to the districts of more than a dozen key lawmakers to drum up support, according to interviews with those involved in the effort. In contrast to their failed drive for a marriage bill two years ago, the advocates envision a short, disciplined and intense run-up to a vote in the State Legislature, raising the prospect that gay couples may be allowed to wed in New York by early summer. Their overriding aim: avoid the mistakes and miscommunications of 2009, when those lobbying for same-sex marriage sent conflicting messages, misjudged the opposition and won far fewer votes than they had predicted. After passing in the Assembly, the bill was defeated in the Senate, 38 to 24.

Sam Waterston For New York Marriage

Chris Meloni For New York Marriage

Top Chef For New York Marriage

Lucy Liu for New York Marriage