In an email to supporters, Brian Brown,
the president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), laid
out his plan to “make this the summer for protecting marriage
supporters.”
Brown's four-part plan includes
lobbying Congress to reintroduce a bill that seeks to protect
opponents of same-sex marriage.
First introduced in 2015 by Senator
Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, the First Amendment
Defense Act (FADA) seeks to bar federal “discriminatory action”
against those who oppose such unions based on a “religious belief
or moral conviction.”
Brown said that he would work with “key
champions in Congress” to reintroduce FADA and pointed out that
President Donald Trump endorsed the legislation during his
presidential campaign.
Brown
also called on supporters to “contact Attorney General Jeff
Sessions to demand that the Trump administration move forward with a
long-promised Executive Order to protect individuals, pastors,
churches and nonprofit groups who believe in traditional marriage
from punitive actions against them by the government.” And he said
that the group would conduct “a strong public education campaign”
to shore up its legal team as it prepares to file amicus briefs in
the upcoming Supreme Court case involving a Colorado baker who
refused to serve a gay couple.
(Related: Baker
who refused gay couple says Jesus would do the same.)
Brown added that NOM would launch an
initiative aimed at highlight the “utter hate that many on the left
have for people who remain firm in their belief that marriage is as
God created it – one man and one woman.” Its First Freedom
Initiative would target the “animus and dangerous tactics of groups
like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the grossly-misnamed Human
Rights Campaign,” both of which support LGBT rights.
(Related: Despite
dismal attendance, NOM promises victory over Obergefell
at March for Marriage.)